Boeing Starliner Spacecraft Passes Key Safety Test With Successful Launch Pad Abort - NASA
Boeing's Starliner, one of two commercial spacecraft designed to shuttle astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), completed a critical safety milestone in an end-to-end test of its abort system, NASA said in a press release on Monday
"The test was designed to verify each of Starliner's systems will function not only separately, but in concert, to protect astronauts by carrying them safely away from the launch pad in the unlikely event of an emergency prior to liftoff," the release said.
During Monday's test, Starliner's four launch abort engines, and several orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters simultaneously ignited to rapidly push the spacecraft away from the launch pad, the release added.
Several minutes later, the Starliner touched down a safe distance away slowed by the successful opening of two of the system's three parachutes, according to the release.
Boeing and rival company SpaceX are independently developing systems to launch astronauts into space from the United States for the first time since the Space Shuttle's retirement in 2011.
Since the shuttle's demise, NASA has sent astronauts to and from the station by purchasing seats on Russia's Soyuz system.
In October 2018, a similar launch abort system saved NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin when the Soyuz rocket malfunctioned shortly after liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
NASA said Boeing's next mission, called Orbital Flight Test, will ferry supplies to the space station in an uncrewed Starliner, with liftoff scheduled for December 17.