It is a success for the company, which must in the future transport astronauts for NASA. The Boeing capsule, Starliner, docked for the first time on Friday May 20 with the International Space Station (ISS). The docking took place at 8:28 p.m., US East Coast time (2:28 a.m. Saturday in Paris), more than an hour behind the initially scheduled time due to final checks during the maneuvers, meticulously choreographed at 400 km above our heads.
Astronauts aboard the ISS and the control room in Houston closely monitored the approach. Starliner first leveled off about 250 yards from the station. Then, after advancing slightly, the capsule retreated to demonstrate that it could retreat if needed. Finally, after a new controlled stop although longer than expected at 10 meters, the delicate final maneuver, carried out while the station is speeding at 28,000 km/h, has been initiated. The vehicle approached slowly, until contact. “The Starliner spacecraft successfully completes its historic first docking with the International Space Station, opening a new route to the flying laboratory for crews”said a commentator on the US space agency’s live broadcast at the time.
Hello, #Starliner! @BoeingSpace‘s human-rated spacecraft has arrived at the International @Space_Station for the first time, docking at 8:28pm ET (00:28 UTC). pic.twitter.com/gXceiHJhuB
—NASA (@NASA) May 21, 2022
The capsule hatch won’t be open until Saturday. Boeing is transporting about 230 kg of supplies on behalf of NASA, including food. Starliner must remain docked to the ISS for about five days, before descending to Earth to land in the desert of the US state of New Mexico, on the basis of White Sands.
This unmanned test flight had already been attempted in 2019, but the capsule had then encountered several problems and had to turn back without being able to reach the station. Since then, Boeing has been struggling to catch up with SpaceX, a newcomer to the aerospace sector in comparison, but which has already been transporting astronauts for NASA since 2020, after the successful qualification flights of its own capsule, Dragon.