Boeing’s Starliner Spacecraft Touches Down After Test of Safety System

Boeing successfully tested a safety system of its commercial spacecraft on Monday morning, bringing the American aerospace industry one step closer to launching astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time since 2011.

The company ran an uncrewed test on the launch abort system of the CST-100 Starliner, a 16.5-foot spacecraft that can carry up to seven people, in New Mexico.

At 7:15 a.m. local time, the capsule blasted off from its support platform and soared thousands of feet into the air above the White Sands Missile Range. Less than two minutes later, it was gliding back down to earth under two red, white and blue parachutes.

A third main chute did not deploy, but the craft still landed safely.

NASA broadcast live coverage of the test on its website. The safety test, also called a pad abort test, was meant to demonstrate whether the part of the spacecraft that carries that crew would be able to successfully detach itself from a malfunctioning rocket in the case of an emergency.

“Today was really amazing,” E. Michael Fincke, a NASA astronaut who is among the crew expected to travel to the International Space Station on the Starliner, said in a filmed interview shortly after the test. “We hope we never need to use this system, but in case we ever have any trouble aboard the beautiful Atlas V on the launchpad, we know after today’s test that we’ll be able to get off safely and then come back and try again a different day.”

The Atlas V is the rocket that is expected to eventually launch the Starliner on a crewed mission to the International Space Station.

The Starliner’s uncrewed orbital flight test is scheduled for Dec. 17 on the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, according to NASA.

Boeing is a part of NASA’s commercial crew program, a partnership between the space agency and private American companies to build crewed spacecraft. NASA chose Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 to transport crew to and from the International Space Station, the research laboratory that orbits Earth.

Both companies are years behind schedule, and their first crewed launches will probably not occur until sometime in 2020.

As part of the test on Monday, the Starliner’s engines and thrusters ignited to push the spacecraft up. The spacecraft zoomed to nearly a mile above land before it began to arc back toward the ground. A series of parachutes then deployed and the airbags inflated as the Starliner touched down gently in the desert.

American astronauts have not launched from United States soil since 2011, when NASA retired its space shuttle fleet and started paying for seats aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to send American astronauts to the space station.

Boeing received a contract worth up to $4.2 billion as part of the commercial crew program. Much of the money allotted to the company was meant to help the spacecraft meet NASA’s certification requirements for performance and safety. NASA promised Boeing at least two missions.

Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, is facing pressure to address its failings after hundreds of people died in two crashes of Boeing-built planes in October 2018 and March.