A new image and incredible time-lapse shows an aurora filling the view as Boeing Starliner astronauts performed a crucial in-flight test in space on Saturday (June 15).
Starliner is currently located on the International Space Station (ISS), and the crew was testing the capsule’s thrusters because problems had delayed docking procedures; The first time problems occurred was on June 6, when astronauts were on board. While that was happening, NASA astronauts floated to a nearby one SpaceX Dragon capsule, also attached to the ISS, and captured a green aurora glittering behind the back of the Starliner.
“Starliner was testing today, so we decided to test it from the Dragon windows,” NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “The timing was great for the aurora to line up nicely with the thrusters of Starliner’s service modules.” Dominick also shared one timelapse of the testin which you can see crew flashlights illuminating Starliner.
Auroras occur when the sun erupts and emits charged particles that interact with it magnetic field lines all around Soil. The particles glow and emit bright colors. The sun is currently mainly active as it reaches its normal 11-year activity cycle. That is why these shows are more often seen on Earth and in space.
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Starliner is co-piloted by veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both former US Navy test pilots. They have repeatedly emphasized that the mission is developmental and intended to resolve major issues before Starliner is fully certified to conduct ISS rotational missions, which will begin no earlier than 2025 with Starliner-1.
Due to bow thruster testing and spacewalk–As scheduled, the expected weeklong Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission has doubled in length and will depart no earlier than June 22. NASA will hold a media briefing tomorrow (June 18) to discuss the mission’s progress.
During the extended mission, “the crew will perform additional hatch operations to better understand its operation, repeat some ‘safe haven’ tests and assess the pilots using the forward window,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program , in a recent statement from the agency.
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Starliner and Dragon are the two commercial spacecraft that NASA supported with funding for astronaut missions to the ISS in 2014. At the time, both spacecraft were expected to fly no earlier than 2017. However, technical and financial problems delayed that goal. SpaceX sent its first astronauts into the sky in 2020 after a successful unmanned test mission, while Starliner waited longer.
Starliner’s first unmanned ISS test in 2019 failed to reach its destination due to computer glitches. Dozens of such problems and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 postponed the second unmanned test until 2022. That test went as planned, but new problems arose. For example, there were complications with loading parachutes and flammable tape, which delayed the CFT launch until 2023.
The launch of CFT was then postponed an additional monthfrom May 6 to June 5. This was due to various problems with the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, as well as a small helium leak in one of Starliner’s thrusters. The leak affected, among other things, one way of re-entering the country the Earth’s atmosphere and required careful reevaluation before the ultimately successful launch.