Boeing's Starliner capsule has just successfully completed its final parachute drop tests. The company is now planning a new test flight to the ISS as early as next year.
Small reminder of the context. In 2014, NASA signed up with two private service providers, SpaceX and Boeing, to operate commercial flights to the International Space Station (ISS). These two companies will take turns transporting freight (equipment) and astronauts to the laboratory in orbit.
For its part, SpaceX has set out to develop the Crew Dragon capsule that everyone now knows. This vessel has already been active for several months and has already transported astronauts twice to the ISS (in May and November). For your information, two of these capsules are currently docked at the station, which is a first. For its part, Boeing developed another capsule called Starliner, but not everything went as planned.
About a year ago, Boeing indeed carried out a first unmanned test of its ship. During this maneuver, Starliner had to succeed in reaching the ISS. Unfortunately, the craft experienced a software glitch upon entering space, resulting in what NASA calls an off-nominal insertion. In other words, the capsule landed in the wrong orbit , causing it to burn excess fuel. As a result, she was ultimately unable to reach the station.
A little later, Boeing and NASA also noted problems with communications between ground operators and the capsule, then another software problem that could have caused a collision between the launcher and the spacecraft at the time of their separation in the upper atmosphere.
Finally, last March, a report examining the reasons for this failure detailed a list of 80 fixes . And since then, Boeing has been working on it.
More recently, the company took another step by passing the final tests of its parachutes . The exercise collected valuable data that will normally allow a second orbital test flight and then manned trips to the International Space Station (ISS) from next March.
This landing system consists of a pair of small parachutes intended to accompany the Starliner's heat shield as it plunges towards Earth. Two stabilizer parachutes are then deployed to slow and stabilize the craft, before three more main parachutes follow to slow its descent before it hits the ground.
Six such tests recently took place in the New Mexico desert. The final test, visible below, was to drop the capsule from an altitude of 10,700 meters .
