Boeing's manned spacecraft "Starliner" was launched on May 19, local time, for an unmanned test flight and embarked on a journey to the International Space Station.
At 18:54 US Eastern Time on the 19th (6:54 Beijing Time on the 20th), the "Starliner" was launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida on a United Launch Alliance "Atlas 5" carrier rocket. lift off.
Subsequently, the spacecraft and the rocket were successfully separated, and the spacecraft entered the predetermined orbit.
As planned, the "Starliner" will arrive at the International Space Station for docking at 19:10 Eastern Time on the 20th (7:10 Beijing Time on the 21st).
According to NASA, the "Starliner" carried more than 500 pounds (about 226 kilograms) of NASA cargo, astronaut supplies and more than 300 pounds (about 136 kilograms) of Boeing cargo to the space station.
The spacecraft will stay in orbit for 5 days and is expected to leave the space station on the 25th, returning to Earth with more than 600 pounds (about 272 kilograms) of space station supplies.
This is the second uncrewed test flight of the "Starliner".
It conducted its first uncrewed test flight in December 2019, but failed to enter its intended orbit and was forced to cancel its plan to travel to the International Space Station and return to Earth ahead of schedule.
The survey showed that software defects were the main reason for the failure of the first flight.
Since then, the second uncrewed test flight of the "Starliner" originally scheduled for August 2021 was postponed due to a failure of the rocket propulsion system.
(produced by Le Xiaomin)
Responsible editor: [Luo Pan]