The Boeing interstellar spacecraft is scheduled to conduct its first manned test flight on the night of the 6th local time, carrying two American astronauts to the International Space Station. If this test flight is successful, Boeing will carry out more manned space missions to transport astronauts from NASA to the International Space Station.
First manned test flight
According to the website of NASA, the test flight is scheduled to begin at 22:34 Eastern Time on the 6th (10:34 Beijing Time on the 7th). At that time, the interstellar aircraft will be launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida aboard the Cosmos V carrier rocket.
According to the plan, the interstellar plane will take about 26 hours to arrive at the International Space Station, stay there for 8 days, return to Earth, and land in New Mexico or other western regions of the United States.
The Starplane is a reusable cone-shaped spacecraft, approximately 3 meters high and with a maximum diameter of 4.5 meters, capable of carrying up to 7 passengers.
Due to multiple delays in the test flight of the interstellar aircraft, the selection of astronauts for the first flight has also been changed multiple times. The astronauts on board this test flight are 61 year old Butch Wilmore and 58 year old Suni Williams.
According to Reuters, Wilmore is a retired US Navy officer who has traveled to space twice since 2009 and stayed on the International Space Station for a total of 178 days. Williams is a retired naval test pilot who has flown over 30 different aircraft. She has traveled to space twice since 2007 and stayed on the International Space Station for a total of 322 days.
The project has been repeatedly delayed
If this test flight is successful, Boeing will become another private enterprise to launch commercial manned space missions for NASA, following Space Exploration Technology.
Since the retirement of the US space shuttle in 2011, the United States has vigorously developed commercial manned spaceflight. Boeing and Space Exploration Technology signed a contract with NASA in 2014 to develop spacecraft for commercial manned space projects.
According to the initial plan, the spacecraft developed by these two companies was supposed to launch a manned flight mission in 2017, but both sides failed to complete the mission as scheduled. The Dragon spacecraft of the Space Exploration Technology Company completed its first manned test flight in 2020 and has since carried out routine commercial manned space missions multiple times.
Boeing's interstellar spacecraft project has also been delayed multiple times due to technical issues. In December 2019, the spacecraft failed to enter its intended orbit during its first unmanned test flight and was forced to cancel its mission to the International Space Station. In August 2021, the second unmanned test flight of the spacecraft was delayed due to a malfunction in the rocket propulsion system and was not completed until May 2022. In July 2023, the spacecraft planned to conduct its first manned test flight, but it has been postponed until now due to combustible protective tape materials outside the spacecraft cables and inadequate parachute rope strength. Yuan Yuan (Xinhua News Agency special article)