Boeing CST 100 Starliner



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Boeing CST-100 Starliner You might remember last month I’ve made a video about SpaceX Crew and Cargo Dragon, so I thought to make a series of videos covering all 4 programs, The Boeing’s CST 100, SpaceX Crew Dragon, Lockheed Martin’s Orion and New Shepard capsule which doesn’t really compete for NASA Crew program, but it is interesting to look at all options. So what is CST-100 Starliner? It is Boeing’s commercial crewed program for NASA, or should I say it is one of the spacecrafts that are part of NASA Commercial Crew program that will see America returning capability once it had with Space shuttle, however lost with the retirement of the Space shuttle fleet in 2011. Since then NASA was dependent on now 60s era Russian space launch vehicles, which showed its time when a launcher exploded mid-air few months ago. The US manned program became ever more urgent as a result. However, Boeing has been battling its own demons as earlier in the year Boeing’s own CST-100 had flight abort due to technical issues. Boeing hopes CST-100 Starliner maiden crew flight test flight, scheduled for mid-2019, could mark the first time astronauts will have launched into space from U.S. soil since the end of the shuttle program, in 2011. However, SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule — the other private astronaut taxi — is currently slated to fly its first crewed test mission in April 2019. I guess the race for who’ll be first is on. Boeing has been trying to better SpaceX for past 5 years, so bit of race between the two space giants is welcomed, as long as it brings positive and productive result for all concerned. Before Starliner becomes operational, it must go through a series of uncrewed and crewed test flights. During each of these, Starliner will launch and dock with the space station. While the capsule is in orbit, crews will evaluate the vehicle's systems, ensuring that everything is working as planned. The first of those tests, an uncrewed mission, could be carried out as soon as the end of this year, at least this is what NASA hopes it might happen. Starliner will be launched on top of Atlas V rocket, which is comparable to SpaceX’s own Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket, however less efficient and as the rocket isn’t re-usable and launch costs are around $184 million, with SpaceX charging only $62 million for Crew Dragon launch, a stark difference in price is due to Atlas V not being reusable and rocket alone costs around $110 million to build. Due to recent engine failure, it is not certain what the schedule for Boeing’s Starliner is, the likely schedule now is, un-crewed ISS test in early 2019, if Boeing manages to solve any leftover issue with the Starliner the un-manned test flight could happen sometimes in December this year. First Crew ISS launch could happen sometimes in mid-2019, however, first commercial flight of Starliner is now more likely in early 2020, around 8 months behind SpaceX who will be ready for commercial crew flight sometimes in mid-2019, and crew-ISS test flight in April of 2019. NASA will keep both crew commercial programs despite the cost difference, mainly due to keeping the capability and know-how for future programs. NASA won’t make the same mistake it did with the Space Shuttle when it lost important capability with the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011.

Published by: mic of orion Published at: 5 years ago Category: علمی و تکنولوژی