Boeing's new Starliner capsule set for first crewed flight to space
station
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[May 06, 2024]
By Joey Roulette and Steve Gorman
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Boeing Co's new Starliner astronaut
capsule was poised for a Monday night launch of its long-delayed
inaugural crewed test flight to the International Space Station, two
years after its first voyage without humans to the orbital laboratory.
The gumdrop-shaped CST-100 Starliner with two astronauts aboard was due
for liftoff at 10:34 p.m. (0234 GMT on Tuesday) from NASA's Kennedy
Space Center in Florida, carried atop an Atlas V rocket furnished by the
Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA).
Riding aboard the Starliner, designed to carry up to seven crew members,
are veteran NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore, 61, a retired U.S.
Navy captain, and Sunita "Sunni" Williams, 58, a former Navy aviator and
test pilot.
They have logged a combined 500 days in space over the course of two
missions each to the space station. Wilmore is the designated commander
for Monday's flight, with Williams in the pilot seat.
Although Starliner is designed to fly autonomously, the crew can assume
control of the spacecraft if necessary, and the test flight calls for
Wilmore and Williams to practice maneuvering the vehicle manually.
With forecasts calling for a 95% chance of favorable weather conditions,
ULA completed a launch readiness review on Friday and gave a "go" to
proceed toward countdown at Cape Canaveral.
The launch would mark the first crewed voyage to space using an Atlas
rocket since the storied family of Atlas launch vehicles first sent
astronauts, including John Glenn, on orbital flights for NASA's Mercury
program in the 1960s.
If all goes as planned, 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 early on Wednesday.
Wilmore and 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 - a first for
crewed NASA missions.
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![](../images/050624PIX/news_q3.jpg)
Photographers work on remote cameras at Launch Complex 41 in
preparation for the launch of Boeing's Starliner-1 Crew Flight Test
(CFT), in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., May 4,, 2024. REUTERS/Steve
Nesius
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Success is vital before the Starliner gains final approval to begin
routine operational flights under NASA's commercial crew program,
providing the space agency its first alternative to sending
astronauts to low-Earth orbit from U.S. soil since Elon Musk's
SpaceX began doing so in 2020.
The test flight comes at an especially critical moment for Boeing,
whose commercial aircraft unit has endured a succession of safety
crises in recent years.
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 cost overruns for the aerospace giant on a $4.2 billion
fixed-priced contract with NASA.
The first attempt by Boeing to send an uncrewed Starliner to the
space station in 2019 failed due to dozens of software and
engineering glitches. A second attempt in 2022 succeeded, paving the
way for Monday night's mission.
Depending on the outcome, Starliner is booked to fly at least six
more crewed missions to the space station for NASA.
At a pre-flight briefing with NASA officials on Friday, Boeing vice
president Mark Nappi said the company and the space agency were "in
total agreement" that the Starliner was ready to fly with crew,
adding, "we can't be more confident."
"Because it is a test flight, we give extra attention," NASA chief
Bill Nelson said. "That's why we put two test pilots on board."
(Reporting by Joey Roulette in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Steve
Gorman in Los Angeles; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Sam
Holmes)
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