Serg Korsakov
NASA, Boeing Update Launch Date for Starliner’s First Astronaut Flight (News Release)
Following a review of the International Space Station operations, NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test is now targeting no earlier than Monday, May 6, for Starliner’s first launch with astronauts to the orbital complex. The date adjustment optimizes space station schedule of activities planned toward the end of April, including a cargo spacecraft undocking and a crew spacecraft port relocation required for Starliner's docking.
NASA and Boeing are also performing prelaunch closeout work and completing final certification for flight.
Starliner will carry NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the space station for a docking to the forward port of the Harmony module. Ahead of Starliner’s launch, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 crewmates will board the Dragon spacecraft, currently docked to the forward port, for a relocation to the zenith port of Harmony to allow for Starliner's docking.
The date shift also allows additional time for the crew aboard the microgravity laboratory to complete science and cargo logistics ahead of the departure of the Dragon cargo spacecraft.
As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Starliner will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Williams and Wilmore will spend about a week docked to the space station ahead of a return to Earth in the western United States.
The flight test will help NASA verify whether the Starliner system is ready to fly regular crew-rotation missions to the space station for the agency.
Source: NASA.Gov
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For #TeamBoeing, the #Starliner Crew Flight Test is personal.
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) April 2, 2024
“I will do anything I can to make sure they’re taken care of,” says Deanna Dobson, a subsystems engineer who is one of the many teammates working closely with Starliner’s astronauts.
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