Two veteran astronauts flew to the Kennedy Space Center Thursday afternoon to prepare for the first pilot launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, a highly anticipated flight that has been years in the making behind schedule after two unmanned test flights and extensive work to solve a variety of technical problems.
Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita WilliamsTwo of NASA’s most experienced astronauts with four previous space flights, eleven space walks and 500 days in orbit between that time, landed on the spaceport’s 3-mile runway in T-38 jet trainers after a flight from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“We love Florida. We love the Kennedy Space Center because this is where you launch people into space,” an exuberant Wilmore told reporters on the runway. “In less than two weeks, the next flight we take will have us lying on our backs and flying into the sky.”
Completing the Starliner’s Crew Test Flight, or CFT, will “broaden (NASA’s) capabilities to and from the space station, and that is critical,” he said. “We’re happy to be here.”
Williams said, “This is where the rubber meets the road, where we’re going to leave this planet, and that’s pretty cool!”
A few hours after the crew arrived, and shortly after two Russian cosmonauts completed a four-hour, 36-minute spacewalk outside the International Space Station, mission managers completed a two-day flight readiness assessment, tentatively preparing the Starliner for launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket at 10:34 PM EDT on Monday, May 6.
If all goes well, Wilmore and Williams, both former Navy test pilots, will dock with the space station on May 8 and return to Earth on May 15 or shortly thereafter. If the mission goes well, NASA plans to begin operational Starliner crew rotation flights in 2025, alternating crew launches with SpaceX.
“Today was a big day for our Commercial Crew Program,” said Steve Stich, manager of the CCP for NASA. “All (international) partners and subsequently our entire team have asked ‘go’ to proceed to the launch on May 6. Not only that, but we (signed) what we call an interim human review for Starliner for this crewed flight test. ..It was a huge deal for NASA and our entire team.”
NASA awarded two Commercial Crew Program contracts in 2014, one to SpaceX worth $2.6 billion and the other to Boeing for $4.2 billion, to spur the development of independent spacecraft that would carry astronauts to and from international space station can transport.
The goal was to end dependence on the Russian Soyuz after the retirement of the space shuttle and to resume the launch of American astronauts from American territory aboard American rockets and spacecraft. Equally important to NASA is having two independent spacecraft for crew flights to the ISS, in case a company’s ferry ship becomes grounded for any reason.
SpaceX began pilot flights in May 2020 and successfully launched two NASA astronauts on a Crew Dragon test flight to the space station. Since then, SpaceX has placed 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and civilians into orbit on eight operational flights to the laboratory complex, three commercial visits and one privately funded flight to low Earth orbit.
Boeing launched its Starliner on a unmanned test flight in December 2019, but the spacecraft experienced major software and communications problems that combined to derail an attempt to dock with the space station and nearly led to the crew ship’s destruction.
a second unmanned flight was ordered (and paid for by Boeing), but during an August 2021 launch, window engineers discovered corroded valves in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. By solving that problem, the second test flight was postponed until May 2022.
Although the mission was successful, additional problems were discovered, including problems with the parachute and concerns about potentially flammable protective tape wrapped around the internal wiring. Correcting these issues and finding room for a visit in the space station’s complex flight schedule, the Crew Flight Test was ultimately postponed until May 6.
Datum recent problems with Boeing planes that have raised questions about the company’s safety cultureA successful Crew Flight Test is seen by many as a crucial milestone, both for Boeing and NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
For his part, Wilmore said he did not view the Starliner launch in the context of Boeing’s highly publicized aircraft problems.
“I don’t think it necessarily has anything to do with Boeing and a departing flight,” he said. ‘They are all vital. This is human spaceflight. That adage you’ve heard since Apollo 13: failure is not an option? That has nothing to do specifically with Boeing or this program. Those are all the things we do in human space. space flight.
“So this one is no more or less important than anything else we do,” he said. “It just happens to be the most important one we’re doing right now.”
Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Starliner program manager, agreed, saying, “The success of this mission has always been very important to us as a program for many reasons.”
“Number one, people are flying in this vehicle,” he said. “We take that so seriously in human spaceflight. I’ve spent my career in this industry and it has always been at the top of the list.
“Second, this is an important opportunity for us, for NASA, and so we signed up to do this, and we’re going to do it and be successful at it. So I don’t think about it in terms of what’s important for Boeing, just as I think, but also what’s important to this program, what’s important to deliver on, the commitments we’ve made to our customer.”
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