Astronauts confident Boeing's Starliner is finally ready for crew flights

Two seasoned astronauts flew to nan Kennedy Space Center Thursday day to hole for nan first piloted motorboat of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, a long-awaited formation moving years behind schedule aft 2 uncrewed trial flights and extended activity to resoluteness a assortment of method problems.

Astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams, 2 of NASA's astir seasoned astronauts pinch 4 erstwhile spaceflights, 11 spacewalks and 500 days successful orbit betwixt then, landed astatine nan spaceport's 3-mile-long runway successful T-38 pitchy trainers aft a formation from nan Johnson Space Center successful Houston.

Starliner commandant Barry "Butch" Wilmore (right) and aviator Sunita Williams (left) flew to nan Kennedy Space Center Thursday to hole for nan spacecraft's first piloted motorboat to nan International Space Station connected May 6. NASA/Frank Michaux

"We emotion Florida. We emotion nan Kennedy Space Center, because this is wherever you motorboat humans into space," an ebullient Wilmore told reporters connected nan runway. "In little than 2 weeks, nan adjacent formation we return we'll beryllium laying connected our backs and (launching) into nan heavens."

Completing nan Starliner's Crew Test Flight, aliases CFT, will "broaden (NASA's) capacity to and from abstraction station, and that's vitally important," he said. "We're excited to beryllium here."

Said Williams: "This is wherever nan rubber meets nan road, wherever we are going to time off this planet, and that is beautiful darn cool!"

A fewer hours aft nan unit arrived, and soon aft 2 Russian cosmonauts completed a four-hour 36-minute spacewalk extracurricular nan International Space Station, ngo managers completed a two-day formation readiness review, tentatively clearing nan Starliner for motorboat atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket astatine 10:34 p.m. EDT connected Monday, May 6.

If each goes well, Wilmore and Williams, some erstwhile Navy trial pilots, will dock astatine nan abstraction position connected May 8 and return to Earth May 15 aliases soon thereafter. If nan ngo goes well, NASA plans to statesman operational Starliner unit rotation flights successful 2025, alternating unit launches pinch SpaceX.

"Today was a was a immense time for our Commercial Crew Program," said Steve Stich, head of nan CCP for NASA. "All nan (international) partners and past our full squad polled 'go' to proceed to nan motorboat connected May 6. Not only that, but we (signed) what we telephone an interim quality standing for Starliner for this crewed formation test. ... It was a was a immense woody for NASA and our full team."

The Starliner spacecraft being lowered into spot atop its United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket astatine motorboat analyzable 41 astatine nan Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. ULA

NASA awarded 2 Commercial Crew Program contracts successful 2014, 1 to SpaceX weighted astatine $2.6 cardinal and nan different to Boeing for $4.2 billion, to spur improvement of independent spacecraft tin of carrying astronauts to and from nan International Space Station.

The extremity was to extremity reliance connected Russia's Soyuz successful nan aftermath of nan abstraction shuttle's status and to resume launching American astronauts from U.S. ungraded aboard American rockets and spacecraft. Equally important to NASA is having 2 independent spacecraft for unit flights to nan ISS successful lawsuit 1 company's ferry vessel is grounded for immoderate reason.

SpaceX kicked disconnected piloted flights successful May 2020, successfully launching 2 NASA astronauts connected a Crew Dragon trial formation to nan abstraction station. Since then, SpaceX has launched 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and civilians to orbit successful 8 operational flights to nan laboratory complex, 3 commercialized visits and 1 privately-funded formation to low-Earth orbit.

Boeing launched its Starliner connected an unpiloted trial flight in December 2019, but nan spacecraft knowledgeable awesome package and communications problems that mixed to derail an effort to dock pinch nan abstraction position and almost led to nan unit ship's destruction.

A second unpiloted flight was ordered (and paid for by Boeing), but during an August 2021 motorboat model engineers discovered corroded valves successful nan spacecraft's propulsion system. Fixing that problem delayed nan 2nd trial formation to May 2022.

While nan ngo was successful, further problems were discovered, including parachute issues and interest astir perchance flammable protective portion wrapped astir soul wiring. Correcting those problems, and uncovering room for a sojourn successful nan abstraction station's analyzable formation schedule, yet delayed nan Crew Flight Test to May 6.

Given recent problems with Boeing craft that person raised questions astir nan company's safety culture, a successful Crew Flight Test is seen by galore arsenic a captious milestone, some for Boeing and for NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

For his part, Wilmore said he didn't position nan Starliner motorboat successful nan discourse of Boeing's wide reported craft issues.

An artist's belief of a Starliner connected last attack to nan International Space Station. NASA

"I don't deliberation it has needfully thing to do pinch Boeing and a formation going off," he said. "They're each vitally important. This is quality spaceflight. That adage you've heard since Apollo 13, nonaccomplishment is not an option? That has thing specifically to do pinch Boeing aliases this program. That's each nan things that we do successful quality spaceflight.

"So, this 1 is nary much aliases little important than thing other we're doing," he said. "It conscionable happens to beryllium nan astir important 1 we're doing correct now."

Mark Nappi, Boeing's Starliner programme manager, agreed, saying "the occurrence of this ngo has ever been very important for america arsenic a programme for a batch of reasons."

"Number one, we person humans flying connected this vehicle," he said. "We return that truthful earnestly successful quality spaceflight. I've spent my profession successful this business, and it ever has been nan apical of nan list.

"Second is, this is an important capacity for us, for NASA, and truthful we signed up to spell do this, and we're going to spell do it and beryllium successful astatine it. So I don't deliberation of it successful position of what's important for Boeing arsenic overmuch arsenic I deliberation of it arsenic successful position of what's important for this program, what's important to travel done with, nan commitments that we made to our customer."

In:
• International Space Station
• Boeing
• Space