At 10:34 p.m. ET on Monday, May 6, Boeing's Starliner will carry two U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station.
Boeing, known as NASA's godson, finally ushered in its "first flight". If successful, Boeing will also become the second private company in the world capable of launching a manned spacecraft, and is expected to compete with Musk's Space X in manned spaceflight.
Boeing's Starliner will launch at 10:34 p.m. ET from its launch base at Cape Canaveral, Florida, with two experienced astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch, according to NASA Wilmore) will arrive on the International Space Station on a starliner, and both of them are highly decorated astronauts who have flown into space on the Space Shuttle and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
If all goes well, the two astronauts will board the Starliner capsule on Monday night and take off on an Atlas V rocket developed by Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft with the astronauts on board will detach from the rocket after reaching orbit and begin to start its own engines. The Starliner will then spend more than 24 hours gradually arriving at the space station, where it is expected to dock with the ISS at 12:46 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
The two pilots will then spend about a week on the International Space Station before returning to Earth again aboard a starliner, which is expected to land by parachute into several designated areas in the southwestern United States.
After the retirement of the space shuttle, NASA almost gave all its hopes to Boeing, but this "godson" is obviously not angry, not only the research and development of starliners has been repeatedly delayed, even the plane has frequent failures, and the century-old aerospace giant is about to fall off the altar.
On the contrary, Musk's Space X, which has always been disliked, came from behind. In fact, not only is it disliked, but Space X has been ridiculed and despised countless times since its inception, including Neil Armstrong, the first person to go to the moon.
But Musk, with his perseverance and all his wealth, has taken Space X to glory, in addition to the mature rocket recovery, in May 2020 began to use the Dragon spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from Earth and the International Space Station.
Now, four years later, Boeing has finally ushered in the launch of its own manned spaceflight, using the Atlas V rocket developed by Lockheed Martin, which is non-reusable, so there is no need to expect this rocket to be recycled like the Falcon 9.
However, although NASA packed tickets for the "godson", saying that the "starliner" would only be released after strict review, there are still many netizens who are worried about whether this "godson" who is arrogant and like a loser can really safely send astronauts to the space station.
I don't know what you think, welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss.