NASA and a Boeing CST-100 Starliner landed in New Mexico on Wednesday.
The landing marked the conclusion of the unmanned orbital flight test of the OFT-2 spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS).
The capsule parachuted back into Earth about four hours after leaving the orbiting laboratory.
NASA said the Boeing Starliner mission It was a “critical step in validating the performance of Boeing’s systems” and that OFT-2 “offers the nation an important step toward having two unique human transportation systems for transporting astronauts to and from the space station from American soil.”
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“Today, the NASA Commercial Crew Program and our industrial partner, Boeing, took an important and successful step in the journey to enable more manned spaceflight missions to the International Space Station on American spacecraft from American soil,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. statment. .
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OFT-2’s mission represents the power of collaboration, which allows us to innovate for the benefit of humanity and inspire the world through discovery. This golden age of spaceflight would not have been possible without the thousands of individuals who persevered and put their passion into this great achievement.”
“I am extremely proud of the dedication and perseverance shown by the team at NASA, Boeing and ULA which culminated in a successful completion Starliner’s second orbital flight test From start to finish, Steve Stitch, director of the NASA Commercial Crew Program, said in a statement. “During this process, Starliner has provided an enormous amount of valuable data, which we continue to assess in our efforts to provide a fully functional, internet-connected spacecraft for crew travel to the space station as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Flight tests began on May 19. The Starliner was launched on a ULA Atlas V rocket. From Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida. It docked at the International Space Station on Friday, after which astronauts tested Starliner communications, computer systems and loaded supplies.
Boeing canceled its first attempt to reach the space station in 2019 after software errors. The problem was fixed last summer, but worn valves thwarted the second attempt.
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After reviewing NASA and Boeing data from this test flight, the teams will continue with plans for the Starliner and its next mission, to test the crew’s flight to the space station.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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