Boeing Starliner Launches Into Wrong Orbit After Clock Problem

“That’s safe to take off the table at this point,” Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, said during a news conference after the launch. “It’s not worth doing given the amount of fuel we burned.”

He also said that if there had been astronauts aboard, they would not have been in danger and indeed may have been able to take over and perform the thruster burn correctly.

Current plans are for the capsule to return to Earth on Sunday, landing at White Sands in New Mexico.

This mission did not have anyone aboard, although it did carry a spacesuit-wearing figure mannequin, nicknamed Rosie, after Rosie the Riveter depicted in posters during World War II, in one of the seats. The mannequin was fitted with sensors that were to measure the forces that future astronauts will feel as they ascend to space.

Even though Starliner will not dock with the space station, the successful Atlas 5 launch and a successful landing would achieve many of the goals of the mission.

“Today a lot of things went right,” Mr. Bridenstine said. “This is in fact why we test.”

Later, he added it was too early to know whether it would be possible for astronauts to be aboard for the next Boeing mission as currently planned. “I’m not saying yes, and I’m not saying no,” he said.

Nonetheless, the problems for Starliner raise the stakes for SpaceX’s next launch of its Crew Dragon capsule, currently scheduled for Jan. 11. That flight — without crew aboard — a test of the abort system, in which the rocket will be intentionally destroyed during launch. If that succeeds, SpaceX could still launch astronauts in the first half of 2020.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/science/boeing-starliner-launch.html?emc=rss&partner=rss