The long-awaited first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was called off for at least 24 hours over a technical glitch with the Atlas V rocket that was being readied to launch the new astronaut capsule to orbit on Monday night.

The CST-100 Starliner’s inaugural voyage carrying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) has been highly anticipated and much-delayed as Boeing scrambles to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for a greater share of lucrative NASA business.

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It comes two years after the gumdrop-shaped capsule completed its first test flight to the orbital laboratory without humans aboard. The Starliner’s first uncrewed flight to the ISS in 2019 ended in failure.

Its latest flight was scrubbed with less than two hours left in the countdown as the capsule stood poised for blastoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop an Atlas V rocket furnished by United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture.

The postponement, attributed to an issue with a valve in the Atlas rocket’s second stage, was announced during a live NASA webcast.

It was not immediately clear how long the issue would take to address, but the next available launch windows for the mission are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights.

The two-member crew — NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore, 61, and Sunita Williams, 58 — had been strapped into their seats aboard the spacecraft for about an hour before launch activities were suspended.

They were subsequently assisted safely out of the capsule by technicians and whisked away from the launch complex in a van to await a second flight attempt once the issue has been resolved.

It is not uncommon in the space industry for countdowns to be halted at the 11th hour and for launches to be postponed for days or weeks, even when seemingly minor malfunctions or unusual sensor readings are detected, especially in new spacecraft flying humans for the first time.

Boeing faces intense public scrutiny of all its activities after its commercial airplane operations have been staggered by several crises, including the mid-air blowout of a plane door plug in January. The company has been eager to get its Starliner space venture off the ground to show signs of success and redeem a program years behind schedule with more than $1.5 billion in cost overruns.

While Boeing has struggled, SpaceX has become a dependable taxi to orbit for NASA, which is backing a new generation of privately built spacecraft that can ferry its astronauts and other customers to the ISS and, under the space agency’s more ambitious Artemis program, to the moon and eventually Mars.

Though Boeing has been relatively mute about its plans to sell commercial Starliner flights, the spacecraft would compete head-to-head with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, which since 2020 has been NASA’s only vehicle for sending ISS crew to orbit from U.S. soil.

Seasoned test flight crew

Selected to ride aboard Starliner for its first crewed flight were two NASA veterans who have logged a combined 500 days in space over the course of two previous missions each to the space station. Mr. Wilmore is the designated commander for Monday’s flight, with Ms. Williams in the pilot seat.

Although Starliner is designed to fly autonomously, the astronauts can assume control of the spacecraft if necessary. The test flight calls for Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams to practice maneuvering the vehicle manually while en route to the ISS.

Ironically, the flight would mark the first crewed voyage to space using an Atlas rocket since the storied series of launch vehicles first sent astronauts, including John Glenn, on orbital flights for NASA’s Mercury program in the 1960s.

Once launched, the capsule will arrive at the space station after a flight of about 26 hours and dock with the orbiting research outpost some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. A resident ISS crew, currently comprising four U.S. astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts, will be there to greet them.

Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams are expected to remain at the space station for about a week before riding the Starliner back to Earth for a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the U.S. Desert Southwest – the first time such a system has been used for crewed NASA missions.

The test flight comes at an especially critical moment for Boeing. Its airplane business is dealing with fallout from a midair blowout of a cabin panel door plug on a nearly new 737 MAX 9 in January, as well as previous deadly crashes of two 737 MAX jets.

Getting Starliner to this point has been a fraught process for Boeing, beset by years of development setbacks and more than $1.5 billion in charges for the aerospace giant on a $4.2 billion fixed-priced contract with NASA.

The space agency wants the redundancy of having two different U.S. rides to the ISS, which is expected to retire around 2030. NASA is encouraging private development of new space stations that could replace the ISS after its retirement, potentially giving Starliner new destinations.

Depending on the outcome of the forthcoming flight test, Starliner is booked to fly at least six more crewed missions to the space station for NASA.

New Delhi:

Six decades after its first rocket launch, India, with the success of its Chandrayaan-3 mission now has a surer footing in the field of space exploration and technology. But now, experts say is time the country came up with a national strategic vision on a space policy, boost space-tech, propel its space economy and maximise its geopolitical gains.

India’s goals of becoming a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council is still unfulfilled, but it is now part of an elite group of nations that have been to the moon. These include China, Russia, and the United States. Several aspirants, including Israel, Japan, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates have not succeeded in landing on the moon’s South Pole.

Namrata Goswami, Professor, Space Policy, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, told NDTV that the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission sends a signal to the world that India has matured as a space power, and that it is no longer dependent on the perception that Russia was the so-called hand holder for India developing its space technology.

While stressing on the fact that space plays a critical part in augmenting the grand strategic notion of a nation as well as building its hard and soft power, and India, succeeding in its lunar mission, showcased the maturity and indigenous capacity of Indian space technology, Professor Goswami, however, pointed out that where India is behind is in issuing a national security strategy and space policy where it clearly showcases how space is part of its grand strategic vision.

“Without such a strategy policy, technology demonstration may lack the strategic vision and focus,” she said.

She said the success of India’s moon mission proves to the world that the country now has indigenous space capacity and has caught up with China on the Moon, to the extent that technologies like lunar landing and sending out a rover on a celestial body are concerned. “China is ahead with its autonomous sample return where it returned lunar samples to Earth from the Moon in 2020 and then the Chang’e 5 went on to the Earth Sun Lagrange Point 1, an incredible demonstration of tech,” she said.

G. Scott Hubbard, former NASA Ames Center Director, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Stanford University, said that significant achievements in space exploration are a major badge of accomplishment for any nation. “With the success of MOM at Mars and now Chandrayaan at the Moon, India is showing noteworthy progress in space science,” he said.

Strategy for cislunar space needs planning and foresight

Professor Goswami explained that the space between the Earth and the Moon (cislunar) is a critical strategic area of great power competition with China’s lunar mission focused on sending the Chang’e 6 to the South Pole of the Moon next year to return samples. China and Russia are planning to establish a research base on the Moon by 2036, and that with India now successfully landing on the South Pole, such technology can be utilised for upcoming missions that are democratic, on the Moon, she added.

She said that the success of Chandrayaan-3 has major implications. “For one, it showcases to countries like China, and now Russia, that India has moved ahead in cislunar (space between Earth and Moon) technology by showcasing autonomous lunar landing, sending out a rover and now searching the lunar regolith for elements like aluminium, magnesium, titanium, silicon, iron ore and water ice. Clinching a soft landing where all the sensors, radar system, propulsion system and braking system has to work is a major technological leap for India,” she said.

Geopolitical gains for India

The success of India’s moon mission will improve New Delhi’s bargaining position vis-a-vis BRICS nation, which consists of China and Russia in collaborative efforts when it comes to the Moon, she said. “As for the G-20 summit, showcasing such advanced space technology builds reputation for innovation, and the fact that India did it indigenously adds to its persevering nature in regard to space technology, something other nations will notice and view India as a partner of choice in regard to space cooperation,” Professor Goswami added.

The presence of water, which could be refined into rocket fuel in the future, suggests an opportunity for other countries to use the lunar South Pole region as a base for deeper space exploration, which is where experts feel India has an edge.

The way forward

Experts feel the lunar landing will also boost India’s economy by kickstarting private space exploration programs. “Especially after India has taken a major decision to orient its entire space ecosystem for privatisation. You see, this with its 2023 space policy where the private sector will now be tasked and supported to manufacture the space systems that India will build going forward, with ISRO playing the key role of research and development. This will extend to the lunar missions as well, especially in building launch systems and lander technology,” Professor Goswami said.

The success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission on Wednesday is likely to boost the Centre’s ambitious Make-in-India programme by spurring investments in private space launches and related satellite-based businesses. Shares of Indian space-sector companies have rallied. The processors were built by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s SCL in Mohali, and they are expected to give a fillip to India’s efforts to boost research in semiconductors too. In April, the government announced a landmark Space Policy, which allows the private sector access to a range of space activities.

Dr Hubbard said that in the US, commercial Aviation is a larger market than space. However, the space market continues to grow every year. “The success of SpaceX, Blue Origin and other smaller start-ups show there is clearly a low Earth Orbit space business developing. India might participate in this if it has three ingredients: 1) High net worth entrepreneurs; 2) Highly-trained aerospace engineers; 3) A business ecosystem that encourages such risk taking. It is no accident that SpaceX was founded in Silicon Valley and that Blue Origin is located in Seattle: home of Boeing.”

Professor Goswami said India is a signatory to the Artemis Accords and the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission as well as the fact that its rover (Pragyan) is carrying an experiment to study the lunar elements, supports the Artemis Accords preamble that includes space resource utilisation and building sustainable lunar presence. “As such, understanding the Moon’s South Pole region is key. ISRO can play a role in research and development in partnership with NASA to further develop that end-to-end space capacity,” she said.

A new race in space

Some also feel the geopolitical rivalry among space faring nations could become stronger after Chandrayaan.

“You could see the geopolitical angle of space with the U.S. drafted and now India signed Artemis Accords and the China-led and Russia signed International Lunar Research Station. There are several missions already planned for the Moon with a 2024 China Lunar South Pole sample return, 2028 South Pole survey mission, 2030 Chinese taikonauts landing on the Moon and finally by 2036 China building a research base in collaboration with Russia, Venezuela. Pakistan is also showing interest in joining China. This competition will play out based on who has a permanent presence on the lunar surface, who will build that base first, as well as who will succeed in building the regulatory and normative regimes for the Moon,” Professor Goswami said.

Dr Hubbard, however, said people often speak of a Chinese-US space race to put humans on the Moon and Mars. “While the Administrator of NASA has mentioned this in Congressional testimony, the overt attributes do not yet seem as evident as the US-Soviet “space race” of the 1960’s Apollo era.”

The graph of temperature variation on lunar surface. Twitter/@isro

ISRO on August 27 released a graph of the temperature variation on lunar surface with increase in depth measured by the ChaSTE payload onboard Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander module.

According to the space agency, Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) measured the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the south pole, to understand the thermal behaviour of the Moon’s surface.

“Here are the first observations from the ChaSTE payload onboard Vikram Lander. ChaSTE measures the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole, to understand the thermal behaviour of the moon’s surface,” ISRO said in an update on ‘X’, formerly Twitter.

The payload has a temperature probe equipped with a controlled penetration mechanism capable of reaching a depth of 10 cm beneath the surface.

“The probe is fitted with 10 individual temperature sensors. The presented graph illustrates the temperature variations of the lunar surface/near-surface at various depths, as recorded during the probe’s penetration. This is the first such profile for the lunar south pole. Detailed observations are underway,” it said.

The payload was developed by a team led by the Space Physics Laboratory (SPL) of ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in collaboration with Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad.

India on Wednesday scripted history as ISRO’s ambitious third Moon mission Chandrayaan-3’s Lander Module (LM) touched down on the lunar surface, making it only the fourth country to accomplish the feat, and first to reach the uncharted south pole of Earth’s only natural satellite.