Boeing finally gets going to space station

With only a test dummy aboard, Boeing’s Starliner astronaut capsule pulled up and parked at the International Space Station for the first time yesterday, a huge achievement for the company after years of false starts.

With Starliner’s arrival, Nasa has finally realised its longtime effort to have crew capsules from competing American companies flying to the station.

SpaceX already has a running start. Elon Musk’s company pulled off the same test three years ago, and has since launched 18 astronauts to the ISS, as well as tourists.

The only other time Boeing’s Starliner flew in space, it never got anywhere near the station, ending up in the wrong orbit.

This time, the overhauled spacecraft docked at the station 25 hours after Friday’s launch. The automated rendezvous went off without a major hitch, despite the failure of a

handful of thrusters. If the rest of the mission goes well, Boeing could be ready to launch its first crew by the end of this year.

Nasa administrator Bill

Nelson said Boeing’s long road with Starliner underscored the importance of having two types of crew capsules. US astronauts were stuck riding Russian rockets once the Space Shuttle programme ended, until SpaceX’s first crewed flight in 2020.

Boeing’s first Starliner test flight in 2019 was plagued by software errors that cut the mission short and could have doomed the spacecraft.

Those were corrected, but when the new capsule awaited liftoff last year, corroded valves halted the countdown. More repairs followed, as Boeing chalked up nearly US$600 million in do-over costs.

The seven astronauts on the ISS will unload groceries and gear from Starliner and load it with experiments. The capsule will aim for a landing in New Mexico on Thursday.