CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Boeing counted down for its first astronaut launch on Monday after years of struggle.
NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are set to climb into Boeing’s Starliner capsule for a nighttime liftoff from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station for a weeklong stay.
Wilmore and Williams will test the Starliner spacecraft and its subsystems before NASA certifies the transportation system for rotational missions to the orbiting laboratory for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, according to NASA
NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to ferry astronauts to and from the space station after the shuttle program ended, paying the private companies billions of dollars. SpaceX has been in the orbital taxi business since 2020.
“We always look for a backup,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said before the flight.
Starliner’s debut test flight without a crew in 2019 ended up in the wrong orbit and failed to reach the space station, forcing Boeing to repeat the demo before astronauts could fly. Following more reviews last year, the company had to fix the capsule’s parachutes and yank out a mile of flammable tape.
“There have been a lot of problems over the years, but space is hard. Space is unforgiving. And so, um it’s taken a long time,” Nelson said.
The test flight is expected to happen at 10:34 pm local time.
