The Boeing Starliner, one of the two private space vehicles that looks to cart astronauts to the International Space Station, moved forward with a pad abort test Monday morning, landing safely but losing one parachute along the way.
Commentators pointed out during a live stream of the test at White Sands Missile Range that despite losing one of three parachutes, that it fell within the parameters for what the company determined to be a successful test. Commentators said even one parachute would be acceptable.
The capsule blasted off from the facility's Launch Complex 32 at 9:15 EST (7:15 local time) with four launch abort engines firing the capsule into the sky, then deploying three parachutes, but losing one on its descent.
The capsule also jettisoned a lower portion so that a bottom airbag system could deployed before it landed back on the New Mexico sands.
The flight marks the first time the Starliner has had any sort of launch.
While SpaceX already sent its Crew Dragon on the Demo-1 test flight earlier this year to the International Space Station, Boeing has yet to make that test flight.
Boeing has targeted Dec. 17 for the Starliner's Orbital Flight Test to the ISS, its first unmanned test flight. United Launch Alliance is stacking the Atlas V rocket today to prep for that flight.
The test at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico will take a flight test vehicle that was assembled last year at Kennedy Space Center, and see if the capsule's four abort engines can safely propel the capsule and its crew away from what would be an exploding rocket.
There won't be an actual exploding rocket though. It will simply propel Starliner away from a test stand. The rocket engines fire and send it up and away from the danger below, and then parachutes deploy for the it to safely return to the ground.
Both companies are seeking NASA certification to begin regular launches of astronauts to the ISS. When they launch with crews this year, it will be the first time NASA has sent astronauts into space from U.S. soil since the space shuttle program ended in 2011.
Since then NASA has relied on Russia to ferry its astronauts to the ISS at considerable cost. As part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, Boeing landed a contract for $4.2 billion and SpaceX $2.6 billion to develop the capsules and take over the launches. Those contracts include six crewed launches each to the ISS.
The pad abort system is something being utilized by not only SpaceX and Boeing, but in Blue Origin's New Shepard rockets as well as the Orion capsule being used in NASA's Space Launch System.
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