Boeing’s manned spacecraft “interstellar airliner” was launched on the 19th for a non manned test flight and embarked on a journey to the international space station.
At 18:54 U.S. Eastern time on the 19th (6:54 Beijing time on the 20th), the “interstellar airliner” took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida on the United Launch Alliance’s “Cosmos God 5” carrier rocket. Subsequently, the spacecraft and the rocket separated smoothly, and the spacecraft entered the predetermined orbit.
According to the plan, the “starplane” arrived at the international space station at 19:10 on the 20th (Beijing time at 7:10 on the 21st) for docking. According to NASA, the starplane carried more than 226 kilograms of NASA cargo, astronaut supplies and more than 136 kilograms of Boeing cargo to the space station. The spacecraft will stay in orbit for five days. It is expected to leave the space station on the 25th and return to earth with more than 272 kilograms of space station materials.
Since the retirement of the US space shuttle in 2011, the United States has vigorously developed commercial manned spaceflight. Boeing company and space exploration technology company obtained the manned spacecraft project contract from NASA in 2014 to build the “starplane” manned spacecraft and the manned version of the “dragon” spacecraft respectively to transport American astronauts to the international space station.
