by Two veteran astronauts flew to the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday evening to prepare for the first pilot launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, a long-awaited flight over the years. 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 seasoned astronauts with four previous space flights, 11 spacewalks and 500 days in orbit in between, landed at the spaceport’s 3-mile long 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 send people into space,” Wilmore said to reporters on the runway. “In less than two weeks, the next flight we take we will lay on our backs and (launch) into the heavens.”
Completing the Starliner Crew Flight Test, or CFT, will “expand (NASA’s) capability to and from a space station, and that’s critical,” he said. “We’re excited to be here.”
Williams said: “This is where the rubber hits the road, where we’re going to leave this planet, and that’s great!”
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 review, tentatively clearing the Starliner for launch atop United Address. Alliance Atlas 5 rocket at 10:34pm EDT Monday, May 6.
If it goes well, Wilmore and Williams, both former Navy test pilots, will dock at the space station on May 8 and return to Earth on May 15 or soon after. If the mission goes well, NASA plans to begin operational crewed Starliner flights in 2025, an alternate crew launch with SpaceX.
“Today was a huge day for our Commercial Crew Program,” said Steve Stich, CCP manager for NASA. “All the (international) partners and then our entire team voted ‘go’ to go ahead with the launch on May 6. Not only that, but we signed (signed) what we call an interim human rating for Starliner for this crewed flight test. . .. It was a big 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 encourage the development of autonomous spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
The goal was to end dependence on the Russian Soyuz after the retirement of the space shuttle and to once again launch American astronauts from US soil aboard American rockets and spacecraft. Equally important to NASA is having two independent spacecraft for crewed flights to the ISS in case one company’s shuttle is grounded for any reason.
SpaceX began pilot flights in May 2020, successfully sending two NASA astronauts on a Crew Dragon test flight to the space station. Since then, SpaceX has launched 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and civilians into orbit in eight operational flights to the laboratory complex, three commercial visits and one privately funded flight to low-Earth orbit.
Boeing launched its Starliner on the test flight without a pilot in December 2019, but the spacecraft that came together to attempt to dock with the space station had severe software and communication problems that resulted in the near destruction of the ship’s crew.
A the second flight without a pilot it was ordered by Boeing (and paid for by Boeing), but during a launch window in August 2021 engineers discovered corroded valves in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. The resolution of that problem delayed the second test flight until May 2022.
Although the mission was successful, additional problems were encountered, including parachute issues and concerns about flammable protective tape that may have been wrapped around the internal wiring. Fixing those problems, and finding room for a visit in the space station’s complicated flight schedule, eventually delayed the Crew Test Flight until May 6.
given recent problems with Boeing aircraft that raised questions about the company safety cultureA successful Crew Flight Test is seen by many as a critical milestone for both Boeing and NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
For his part, Wilmore said he was not looking at the Starliner launch in the context of Boeing’s widely reported aircraft issues.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with Boeing and flying away,” he said. “They’re all critical. This is human spaceflight. That adage you’ve heard from Apollo 13, that failure is not an option? That’s not specific to Boeing or this program. Those are all the things we do in human spaceflight.
“So this one is no more or less important than anything else we’re doing,” he said. “It just happens to be the most important one we’re doing right now.”
Mark Nappi, Boeing 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, we have people flying on this vehicle,” he said. “We take that seriously in human spaceflight. I’ve spent my career in this business, and it’s always been at the top of the list.
“Secondly, this is an important capability for us, for NASA, so we signed up to do this, and we’re going to go and be successful at it. So I don’t think of it in terms of the things that are important to Boeing as much as I think it is in terms of what’s important to this program, what’s important to follow through on, the commitments we’ve made to our customers.”
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