North American aircraft maker Boeing is expected to make its first crewed flight to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday with the Starliner spacecraft, which will launch on a two-week test mission after several delays.
“We are in good condition,” Mark Nappi, Vice President of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program, said in a video conference, after announcing the new date for the manned flight, indicating that the company is successfully completing all necessary procedures. Starliner launch tests on a United Launch Alliance rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, US.
The launch will take place after being subjected to successive postponements, the last of which was last year due to technical problems.
If Boeing succeeds in this test mission, which will take on board two astronauts from the North American Space Agency (NASA), the company will be able to send the first commercial Starliner flight to the International Space Station by December after obtaining the necessary certificates. .
In this context, Boeing will become NASA's second supplier for manned and cargo flights to the International Space Station, after SpaceX, the company of businessman Elon Musk.
The Starliner spacecraft is reusable and has the capacity to carry seven people, but the crewed missions NASA has ordered from Boeing expect four or five astronauts.
The pilot of the Starliner CTF (short for Crewed Test Flight) will be Barry “Butch” Wilmore, a former NASA space program pilot and two-time visitor to the International Space Station. Alongside her will be Sonny Williams, who has two space missions under her belt. In 2007, he became the first person to “run a marathon” in space, when he ran on the station's treadmill for more than four hours. In addition to this duo, NASA astronaut and three-time Space Station resident Mike Finke has been selected as a backup pilot for the mission.
that it #National_Space_Day -And only three days until #StarlinerCrew flight test launch!
Come with us and @NASASocial To tour our commercial crew and cargo processing facility. We will also visit @ulalaunchHearing from your teammates as you carry out the mission, and much more. pic.twitter.com/NuCtf1jtqE
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) May 3, 2024
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