ORLANDO, Fla. _ In the early hours of Friday, Boeing's astronaut capsule Starliner illuminated the Space Coast in what was supposed to be a seminal launch for NASA's commercial space program, but an issue shortly after launch put the mission's success in question.
About 30 minutes after liftoff, the spacecraft failed to perform a maneuver that would have put it on track to rendezvous with the International Space Station, where Starliner is supposed to dock Saturday. Starliner had what NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said was a "Mission Elapsed Time" anomaly, causing the capsule to think "it was in an orbital insertion mode, when it was not."
That caused it to burn more fuel than anticipated to maintain control.
"We are getting good burns and are elevating the orbit of the spacecraft," Bridenstine said.
Boeing said the spacecraft was safe and stable, but Starliner is not in the correct orbit. Teams are troubleshooting the issue to help Starliner get in the right place.
For the better part of a decade, the space agency has been hoping to return American astronauts to space on U.S. rockets and now it's at the cusp of achieving it. Boeing's mission Friday, the first full test for Starliner, will help determine how prepared commercial companies are to regularly send their spacecraft to the station _ and one day, with crew.
No humans were on board Friday's launch, which took off at 6:36 a.m. on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's launch complex 41. A test dummy onboard covered in sensors, called Rosie after Rosie the Riveter, took the ride to test how astronauts would handle the mission.
SpaceX, the other contractor on the program, performed the same test for its spacecraft, Crew Dragon, in March without any issues.
Since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011, NASA has been sending Americans to space on Russian Soyuz rockets. NASA is hoping SpaceX and Boeing will be able to start launching with humans next year.
Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson, who commanded the final shuttle mission that returned to the Space Coast on July 21, 2011, will be one of three crew members to fly on Starliner's first mission with astronauts aboard.
Ferguson said Thursday that it's taken too long to return the capability of launching astronauts to the U.S., but this time will be very different. NASA's Commercial Crew Program is a different approach to spaceflight, using commercial companies as partners and opening the possibility of giving the private sector _ and, someday, private astronauts _ access to space.
"As we sit on the threshold of a new business ... to quote an old phrase: 'If we build it, will they come?' I would like to believe the answer's 'yes,'" Ferguson said, "and this is our first demonstration" of that.
NASA planned for crewed missions would begin as early as 2017, but challenges in the program have put it at least two years behind schedule. Technical issues, problems with parachute development and two major missteps during testing set both contractors back. In April, SpaceX's test capsule exploded during a test of its abort engines. And in June 2018, Starliner experienced a fire during a test of its abort engines, too.
Boeing was paid $4.2 billion for its contract, while SpaceX got $2.6 billion.
A recent audit by a NASA watchdog found that the space agency gave Boeing an additional $287.2 million in 2016 to keep it on track and onboard as a second provider in the program. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday that the requirements for Boeing and SpaceX were different: SpaceX already had a crew version of its craft that it's been sending on resupply missions to the ISS, while Boeing had to start from scratch.
"The real question is, 'Would you prefer to spend the money with a company in the United States of America? Or would you prefer to spend the money in Russia?'" Bridenstine said. "I'd prefer to spend in the United States of America."
If Starliner is able to make it to the ISS, it will spend about a week there before _ landing back on Earth in New Mexico.
The key, said astronaut Mike Fincke, who along with Ferguson and astronaut Nicole Mann will go on the first crewed mission, is to find out what systems need to be tweaked before Starliner carries humans.
"This is what we live for," Fincke said. "This is how we make aviation safe. This is how we make spaceflight safe."
