Boeings new Starliner spacecraft is in the wrong orbit during first trip to space

The first flight of Boeing’s new passenger spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner, did not go as planned this morning, after the vehicle failed to reach the right orbit when it launched to space. No people were on board the test flight. However, the failure calls into question the Starliner’s future and how long it will take for the team to recover from the mishap.

Updates from Boeing and NASA, which was helping to oversee the mission, have been sparse. Boeing says that Starliner is “safe and stable,” but it’s unclear if the spacecraft will remain that way for the foreseeable future. “The spacecraft currently is in a stable configuration while flight controllers are troubleshooting,” NASA wrote in an update on its website. NASA says the...

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