Explained: A taxi to space and back, first test passed

Boeing is developing the CST-100 Starliner jointly with NASA’s Commercial Crew Programme (CCP). It is one of two companies that CCP has agreements with to develop new private spaceships meant to ferry astronauts to space and back; the other is Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX.

On its first major space flight, a dummy for the one-and-a-half-minute shakedown of the capsule’s launch abort system, the spacecraft shot a mile into the air before parachuting down in the desert of New Mexico. It carried no crew, but both NASA and Boeing said any astronauts that might have been on board would not have been put in danger due to the failure of one parachute.

The need for space taxis

NASA wants to reduce dependence on Russia’s fleet of Soyuz space shuttles, which have been, since the retirement of the US Space Shuttle Program (SSP) in 2011, the only spacecraft that can ferry astronauts (and cosmonauts) to the ISS and back. All Soyuz spacecraft are launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Through a public-private partnership with US aerospace companies, NASA (via the CCP initiative) seeks to operate a new generation of spacecraft and launch systems capable of carrying crew to low-Earth orbit and the ISS. The crew transportation systems will be owned and operated by the companies, which, in addition to ferrying US astronauts, will be able to sell their services to other customers as well.

“By encouraging private companies to handle launches to low-Earth orbit — a region NASA’s been visiting since 1962 — the nation’s space agency can focus on getting the most research and experience out of America’s investment in the International Space Station. NASA also can focus on building spacecraft and rockets for deep space missions, including flights to Mars,” NASA had said in 2014 while announcing these partnerships.

Monday’s test flight was critical to get crew flight certification that will eventually enable Boeing to operate the capsule. This was part of NASA’s effort to ensure that the modes of transportation being produced by the private companies fulfill its safety and performance requirements.

NASA’s Space Shuttle Program

In the 30 years beginning 1981, NASA’s space shuttle fleet under its SSP — Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour — flew 135 missions, many of which helped construct the ISS, the largest manmade structure in space. The shuttles were reusable spacecraft that could carry humans into orbit. The final space shuttle mission was carried out by Atlantis in 2011.

The reentry manoeuvre of NASA’s space fleet involved a descent lasting over one hour through the Earth’s atmosphere, and a precision landing. The returning shuttles behaved as unpowered gliders, demanding that each landing be flawless. In 2003, the Columbia shuttle was destroyed during re-entry on its 28th mission due to a hole in one of the wings, and all seven members of the crew on board, including Indian American Kalpana Chawla, died tragically.

Unlike the SSP vehicles that landed on a runway like an aircraft, the Boeing capsule uses its parachutes and an airbag system to descend to the ground. The landing mechanism is designed to absorb the shock of the impact, and allow the capsule to be reused 10 times. The capsule is not designed for a water-based return.

NASA expects the first mission to carry humans using these capsules to take off by 2020.