Preparations are complete for the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to launch aboard a ULA Atlas V rocket. Credit: Boeing
NASAThe first crewed Starliner mission is planned with astronauts Wilmore and Williams, aiming for a May 6 launch and a week on the ISS before returning to Earth.
Launch preparations are moving full steam ahead to send two NASA astronauts aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft for the first time. International Space Station. NASA, Boeing and the United Launch Alliance (ULA) recently completed a start-to-finish dress rehearsal of the mission on April 26, for the crew’s next flight test.
The mission will launch NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, commander, and Suni Williams, pilot, on Boeing’s Starliner on a ULA Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida. Takeoff is scheduled for 10:34 p.m. EDTMonday May 6.
From left, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore pose for photos at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Launch and Landing Center in Florida after arriving for the Boeing crew flight test of the agency. Credit: Frank Michaux
During the dress rehearsal, Wilmore and Williams completed a series of milestones on launch day, including suiting up, working in a cockpit simulator and using the same software that will be used during the launch. After loading the building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and transporting it to the Vertical Integration Facility near Cape Canaveral to perform countdown procedures with the integrated Atlas V rocket and Starliner stack.
The crew will spend about a week at the orbiting laboratory before the crew capsule returns to Earth, making a parachute and airbag assisted landing in the southwestern United States.
Upon successful completion of the mission, NASA will begin the final process of certifying Starliner and its systems for crew rotation missions to the space station. The Starliner capsule, 15 feet (4.56 m) in diameter and capable of steering automatically or manually, will carry four astronauts, or a mix of crew and cargo, for NASA missions to low Earth orbit .
