Enlarge / Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft approaches the Worldwide House Station on Thursday. (credit score: NASA TV)
A bit of greater than a day after launching into house, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft flew as much as the Worldwide House Station and docked with the orbiting laboratory on Thursday
The journey by means of house was not all the time simple. Within the quick hours after launch on Wednesday, the spacecraft was beset by two helium leaks in its propulsion system. Then, on Thursday, a number of of Starliner’s spacecraft thrusters went offline for a time. Much more typically than initially deliberate, spacecraft commander Butch Wilmore needed to take handbook management of Starliner whereas engineers on the bottom labored on these and different points.
Nevertheless, at 1:34 pm ET on Thursday, Wilmore and the mission’s different crew member, Suni Williams, efficiently docked with the house station. A few hours later, they floated by means of the hatch, making a triumphant entry onto the station—and making historical past.
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