NASA astronaut Bob Hines, UA class of 2010, opened and entered the newly docked Boeing Starliner spacecraft. The gumdrop shaped capsule arrived at the International Space Station after blasting off aboard an Alabama built Atlas-V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Hines and his ISS crewmates will perform five days of tests on the new commercial space capsule. NASA selected both Boeing and SpaceX to build vehicles to fly astronauts to the orbiting outpost, as an alternative to Russian built Soyuz capsules.
"This is the day that they envisioned, where we have three human-rated vehicles docked at the space station right now," Hines said on NASA air-to-ground radio of the new Starliner, the Russian Soyuz, and the SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle that carried him to orbit. Starliner’s arrival means capsules from competing U.S. companies are flying to the space station.
The arrival of the new Boeing Starliner, carrying cargo and a test dummy nicknamed “Rosie the Riveter on board, represents a victory for the longtime NASA contractor. SpaceX has been leading the way in this commercial effort with the same test flight three years ago, and eighteen astronauts launched to the station. The dummy contains sensors to determine the kinds of stresses and conditions NASA astronauts may encounter when the Starliner flies again on a later crewed mission.
Hines is just the second UA graduate to fly in space. James Kelly, class of 1996, visited the International Space Station to deliver cargo by the now retired Space Shuttle Discovery in 2001. He also piloted the same Shuttle on the very first mission to launch following the 2003 accident that destroyed Columbia and killed the seven astronauts on board.
