The Crew Flight Test for Boeing’s long-running CST-100 Starliner project is finally here.
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The Starliner is Boeing’s attempt to join the field of space tourism by providing a space shuttle replacement that can go to space and come back. It’s a competitor for similar offerings from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
Starliner is scheduled to launch with NASA astronauts aboard for the first time on Monday at 10:34 pm local time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It will be the first time the Starliner has had a manned flight. It’s heading to the International Space Station and coming back. The National Weather Service says the conditions Monday are expected to be mostly sunny with a chance of thunderstorms.
You can watch the launch on the NASA livestream below.
If everything goes according to plan, the Starliner will make its way to the International Space Station and dock there. Later, it will return to Earth and parachute to a spot in either New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range, Willcox, Arizona, the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, or Edwards Air Force Base in California.
The crew will consist of Navy aviators Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams.
Boeing first announced the Starliner in 2010. It was originally supposed to be operational by 2015, but that expectation came and went a long time ago. The project has faced a number of delays over the years, from struggles fitting it on top of a rocket to software problems.
NASA’s contract with Boeing to develop the Starliner was for $4.6 billion. But because it has taken so long and had so many problems, Bloomberg reports that Boeing has actually lost $1.5 billion developing the craft.
