NASA is counting down the hours before Monday night’s planned liftoff of an Atlas-V rocket, built in Alabama. The launch vehicle is carrying Boeing’s new Starliner space capsule with two astronauts on board. This is the first time since Project Gemini in the 1960’s that people have flown on a rocket built for unmanned missions. Gemini paved the way to the Apollo moon landings. NASA is interested in the mission since the new vehicle represents another way to get crew members to and from the International Space Station. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says everything about this mission blazes a new trail for the agency…
“It's the first time that a crew will go on to this new spacecraft. So it's another one of those tremendously important historical markers in NASA space program. This is the sixth rated human rated spacecraft. And so let's go NASA,” he said.
Interest here in Alabama, appears focused on the role of the Atlas-V. United Launch Alliance built the rocket at its factory in Decatur. The vehicle has liquid fueled engines and two solid rocket boosters, similar to the ones that once powered NASA’s space shuttle. Once the Atlas blasts off, a upper stage booster called a Centaur ignites to finish the trip to orbit. The first phase of the mission includes docking the Starliner capsule. Dana Wiegel is the Deputy Program Manager for the International Space Station. She says Starliner is meant to be another way to get astronauts to and from the outpost…
“Space Station is really designed to be continuously crewed,” she said. “And so there any number of different contingencies that we can encounter where redundancy is really needed. And so it's always been our goal to have a handful of different vehicles that we can fly to get crew up there.”
Observers of the space program have confidence in the Alabama Atlas-V rocket, which has a near 100% success rate. There have been problems with the Starliner itself during unmanned test flights. Astronaut Commander Barry Wilmore and Pilot Sunita Williams will control parts of the trip up and back, with the Starliner scheduled to touchdown on dry land at the White Sand Missile Range in New Mexico. Parachutes and inflatable airbags are meant to cushion the touchdown.
