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NASA astronauts Suni Williams (L) and Butch Wilmore (2nd from R), reside nan news media aft arriving astatine nan Kennedy Space Center successful Florida connected Thursday. The 2 unit members are preparing to alert connected nan Boeing Starliner spacecraft connected its maiden crewed formation to nan International Space Station connected May 6. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo
April 25 (UPI) -- The unit of nan first Boeing Starliner abstraction ngo connected Thursday arrived astatine NASA's Kennedy Space Center successful Florida up of nan spacecraft's debut parented ngo connected May 6.
Veteran NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams will beryllium commandant and aviator of nan Crew Flight Test mission to nan International Space Station.
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner is group to assistance disconnected connected May 6 atop an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station successful Florida.
The CFT ngo has been delayed for astir 4 years because of various issues pinch nan Starliner. While Wilmore and Williams said those issues are agelong resolved, they said caller issues are judge to originate during nan 11-day ngo up of launch.
"Do we expect it to spell perfectly? This is nan first quality formation [with] nan spacecraft. I'm judge we'll find things out," Wilmore said aft he and Williams arrived connected nan tarmac successful a two-seat T-38 pitchy utilized for training.
"That's why we do this. This is simply a trial flight. So erstwhile you do test, you expect to find things. We expect to find things."
The planned motorboat follows 2 erstwhile uncrewed flights Boeing and NASA undertook to laic retired procedures for nan first crewed formation and trial those procedures successful formation simulators.
"We had nan room descend fundamentally thrown astatine america nan different day, connected a sim -- and we came retired fine," Williams said. "So I person each nan assurance successful not only our capabilities, nan spacecraft capabilities, but besides our ngo power squad who's fresh for nan challenge. They're up for it."
The first uncrewed Starliner ngo successful 2019 grounded to rendezvous pinch ISS. Boeing overhauled nan program, including awesome package and hardware changes, and conducted a successful uncrewed formation successful 2022.
Further hardware issues, specified arsenic pinch nan main parachutes and wiring, person delayed Starliner's first crewed ngo 4 years down schedule.
SpaceX's fleet of Crew Dragon spacecraft, meanwhile, person flown 50 group to abstraction connected 13 missions.
NASA awarded nan 2 companies contracts nether its Commercial Crew Program to proceed U.S.-based abstraction recreation aft nan Space Shuttle Program ended successful 2011. Boeing's commercialized unit statement for Starliner is weighted astatine $4.2 billion, while nan much successful SpaceX's statement is weighted astatine $2.6 billion.
Wilmore connected Thursday, however, said it's now Starliner's clip to shine.
"We wouldn't beryllium present if we weren't ready. We are ready. The spacecraft's ready. And nan teams are ready," he said.
Boeing's CFT ngo plans to enactment for 8 days aboard nan ISS, during which nan unit will trial some docking backup systems connected approach, arsenic good arsenic landing operations connected nan return to Earth.
If nan CFT formation is simply a success, Starliner's first operational mission, Starliner-1, will return disconnected for nan ISS successful early 2025 for a six-month tenure aboard nan ISS.
Onboard Starliner-1 will beryllium NASA astronauts Scott Tingle and Mike Fincke, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk.
Boeing is contracted for six unit rotation missions done nan extremity of nan ISS's operations, projected for 2030. SpaceX and Boeing will stock 1 ngo each per twelvemonth until nan ISS is decommissioned.
NASA Astronaut Suni Williams addresses nan media aft arriving astatine nan Kennedy Space Center successful Florida connected April 25, 2024, for nan Starliner ngo successful early May. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo
