Boeing's Starliner capsule blasts off on space station test flight – again

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Boeing launched its new space taxi on a long-awaited second test flight Thursday evening, hoping for an out-of-this-world boost in the race to catch up with rival SpaceX.The cone-shaped Starliner capsule, poised atop an Atlas V rocket, blasted off from Cape Canaveral just before 7 p.m., cutting a bright trail through the hazy sky.

Fifteen minutes later, the capsule was flying on its own in space.No astronauts are aboard for the OFT-2 mission, but if all goes well, NASA could finally have the second crew-capable capsule they’ve wanted for years.When the space shuttles were retired over a decade ago, NASA was forced to rely on Russian capsules to get its astronauts to and from the space station.

The agency awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to build the first new American spacecraft since the 1970s, and while SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule won that race to space, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner barely survived its first test flight.The Atlas V begins to lift off from Pad 41, starting the OFT-2 mission. (FOX photo) The OFT-1 mission lifted off successfully back in December of 2019, but just 30 minutes into the flight, things started to go wrong.

The capsule ended up in the incorrect orbit and had used so much fuel that it could not make it to the space station; the mission was shortened from eight days to two.Engineers later determined that the spacecraft’s internal clock was set incorrectly, throwing off the timing and duration of its engine burns.Starliner in space (Boeing rendering) Following the craft’s safe landing, NASA also revealed that a Boeing software bug had been caught and fixed while the capsule was in orbit.