The flight will be Starliner’s first crewed launch following two uncrewed test launches in 2019 and 2022. The upcoming launch will cap a decade and a half of development and, if successful, pave the way for Starliner missions to transport crews to the ISS.
The Starliner project has been behind schedule for several years and is long over budget.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft has successfully completed all of NASA’s crew rotation missions to the ISS since its first crewed flight in 2020. But the agency is keeping plans to use Boeing’s spacecraft as a “backup” for SpaceX. According to NASA, Starliner and Crew Dragon, starting next year, will alternately deliver astronauts to the ISS every six months.
On April 16, Starliner was transported from a hangar at Kennedy Space Center to the tall hangar at the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF), where the Atlas V rocket had already been prepared. In the hangar, a special crane then installed the crew capsule on top of the Atlas V, completing the assembly of the tall spacecraft. 52 meters.
Top NASA officials will conduct a flight readiness review at Kennedy Space Center next week.
The SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to leave the ISS later this month. This will clear the space station’s forward docking port for the arrival of Starliner next month.
The launch of Atlas V and Starliner should take place from the SLC-41 space launch complex.
The launch of Starliner will be the sixth crewed flight of an American orbital spacecraft in more than 60 years, following Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle and Crew Dragon. Starliner crew chief Wilmore believes that perfection should not be expected from the first manned flight: “Please do not have such expectations. It won’t be perfect. But it won’t be bad either. We wouldn’t participate if we thought that.”
Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are preparing for the flight. (NASA photo)
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2024-04-19 01:08:41
