Starliner successfully docks with ISS
Screen capture just after soft docking.
Boeing and NASA today successfully docked an unmanned Starliner capsule to ISS for the first time, completing the up-from-Earth portion of this demo mission to prove out this Boeing spacecraft as a future ferry to bring astronauts to and from the station.
The screen capture to the right, taken from the live feed, shows Starliner just after a successful soft capture docking. This was shortly followed by a hard dock.
They will open the hatch tomorrow after checking out the capsule’s linkage with ISS.
The docking itself was delayed by about 78 minutes, partly to time the docking during a period of good orbital communications and partly because of an issue with NASA’s own docking ring on the station that required engineers to reset it.
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Screen capture just after soft docking.
Boeing and NASA today successfully docked an unmanned Starliner capsule to ISS for the first time, completing the up-from-Earth portion of this demo mission to prove out this Boeing spacecraft as a future ferry to bring astronauts to and from the station.
The screen capture to the right, taken from the live feed, shows Starliner just after a successful soft capture docking. This was shortly followed by a hard dock.
They will open the hatch tomorrow after checking out the capsule’s linkage with ISS.
The docking itself was delayed by about 78 minutes, partly to time the docking during a period of good orbital communications and partly because of an issue with NASA’s own docking ring on the station that required engineers to reset it.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
The elimination of contingency purchases of Soyuz seats for American astronauts.
Starve the beast.
Rogozin is sad.
In the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 1600’s, Admiral de Ruyter ordered a broom be lashed to the masthead of his flagship when he entered port to show he had swept the seas clean of the English
American submariners revived the custom in WW2, when coming in after a successful patrol. https://imgur.com/aXOgIT3
Maybe we should start displaying them after each successful launch and make sure Rogozin gets a copy of the video
Better late than never I suppose.
Col.
That was in response to a whip lashed to a periscope was it not?
What was that old tale about a member of Congress being fooled by a sailor who spun a yarn about a deck-pecker bird when the divots in the teak were from spent shells falling sharp end down onto the deck?
I realize that the booster was destroyed – such a waste(!) – but will the SRBs be refurbished & reflown?
mivenho: No. The Atlas-5 is completely expendable. The only solid rocket boosters that were ever reused, at great cost and with no gain in efficiency, were the shuttle’s.
mivenho-
You might enjoy this—
“From launch to landing, a space shuttle’s solid rocket booster journey is captured, with sound mixed and enhanced by Skywalker Sound.”
“Riding the Booster: Up & Down in 400 Seconds”
NASA (2012)
https://youtu.be/527fb3-UZGo
8:31
Looking at the last photo on Spaceflight Now of the Starliner docked to the station and noticed that orange edge on the service module. Anyone else notice this? Is the sun reflecting off of it through the window?