Boeing launched its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, designed to eventually carry astronauts, into orbit on an Atlas V rocket on Friday. The craft was scheduled for a Dec. 21 rendezvous with the International Space Station, and everything was going as planned on the unmanned mission until Starliner and the rocket separated.
At that point, the spacecraft’s automated system thought that it was in a later stage of the mission. It performed an engine burn designed to maintain control, rather than the one it was supposed to do in order to reach its target orbit. Thus, Starliner burned too much fuel and didn’t have enough to complete its journey to the ISS.
NASA and Boeing were unable to establish remote contact with the craft to override this action, due to a signaling blind spot. However, they did note that had there been any human astronauts on board, they could have easily rectified the situation and proceeded on the mission as planned.
