CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — We are counting down for an historic launch from our Space Coast.
What You Need To Know
- SEE ALSO: About Starliner and Atlas V rocket, understanding the mission, getting to know the crew
- United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket will take off from Launch Complex-41
- This will be the first time that Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will have a journey to the ISS with people onboard
- Find out why the Starliner spacecraft is named Calypso; this will be the second mission for the craft
Boeing is set to send its first crewed Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
The launch is set for 10:34 p.m. Monday night from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station United Launch Alliance Pad 41.
There have been several years of setbacks, most notably when the team had to postpone last year’s launch due to safety issues with the capsule’s parachutes.
But now they are confident they can fly this crew safely.
“This is a test flight, and brings to bear all the things the title implies,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a Friday briefing.
This mission marks the return of human spaceflight from the Cape Canaveral side since Apollo 7 launched in 1968.
It’s a test of the Starliner craft and its systems before NASA certifies it for human rated missions.
“I’ve never felt readier on any mission that I’ve ever participated in. We are fully aligned with NASA and ULA, it’s been a very clean last month. We are mature and where we are supposed to be at this point,” said Mark Nappi, Boeing Commercial Crew Program Manager
On board the Starliner will be the two-member crew – NASA astronauts Commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams.
They will be an integral part of testing the spacecraft from launch, docking, on board and landing.
And once the test flight wraps, it will create a second option to launch astronauts to the ISS in addition to Space X’s Crew Dragon.
“We’ve been striving commercial crew to have two independent space transportation systems, that’s been our goal since commercial crew inception, and we are very close to reaching that goal,” NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stitch.
Boeing is aiming to launch its first operational mission to the ISS with a four-member crew in 2025.
The company will fly five more Starliner missions to the ISS as part of their contract with NASA.
The goal is to launch them before 2030, when the space station will be deorbited.
Once private space stations come online, Starliners will begin flying there.
Wilmore and Williams will spend a week on board the orbiting outpost after docking early Wednesday, May 8, then aim for a southwest U.S. desert landing on May 15.