Next month, the Boeing Corporation will launch the first test flight of its new CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, designed to transport astronauts to the International Space Station.
In addition to Space X, NASA signed a contract with Boeing for the delivery of US astronauts to the ISS from the United States. At present, the space crews are transported by Russian Soyuz capsules from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
During the first test flight, Boeing CST-100 Starliner will be without people on board. It will be launched to the orbital outpost, where it will automatically dock, and then detach and return to Earth, landing with parachutes in Texas. If this mission goes smoothly, it would be possible to launch the first spaceship with a crew in August, as the Boeing corporation announced.
The mission, called Orbital Flight Test, will be launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Center in Florida. Atlas V rocket created by the Joint Launch Alliance will be used. Initially, this test flight was announced on August 27, 2018, but it was postponed due to anomalies found in the launch security system.
Although the Starliner capsule had not yet reached space, it was successfully tested in the Earth’s atmosphere. In particular, the parachute landing system was tested. Meanwhile, Musk’s company, Space X, announced the first test flight of the Crew Dragon capsule on February 28, and the first flight with the crew will take place later in June.
If all these tests are successful, Boeing and Space X will be the first private companies capable of carrying people to space.
