Boeing’s space taxi for astronauts, the Starliner capsule, has taken an important step on the way to launch – specialists have connected it to the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket in preparation for the first manned mission to the International Space Station (ISS) which will take place no earlier than May 6.
On board the capsule during the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission will be NASA veterans and former Navy test pilots Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Pilot Suni Williams.
After a 10-kilometer journey from its hangar, the Starliner capsule arrived at the ULA Vertical Integration Center, also located on the grounds of the NASA Space Center. Kennedy, where the Atlas V rocket is being assembled. Boeing Space wrote on its Twitter page that the rocket and space capsule were successfully integrated.
See #Starliner roll out from our factory to @ulalaunch's Vertical Integration Facility for its Crew Flight Test. Starliner is now stacked on the #AtlasV rocket for a May 6 launch. pic.twitter.com/ovrdclFFEZ
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) April 16, 2024
After deployment and verification of communication between the Atlas V and the spacecraft, the finished rocket will go to the launch pad. The upcoming approximately one-week mission to the ISS aims to test all the main systems of the capsule, but already with astronauts on board. Before that, the Starliner flew twice without a crew – in 2019, when it did not reach the ISS as planned, and in 2022. The second mission reached the ISS and completed all other major flight tasks.
A moment in history.#Starliner is making the turn past @NASA's historic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).
The VAB is where the Saturn V rocket and the Space Shuttle were assembled. Today it's where the Space Launch System rocket is assembled ahead of Artemis missions. pic.twitter.com/Yht8CrIdX5
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) April 16, 2024
The first manned flight has a long history of delays and postponements. But Boeing and NASA, as well as Starliner astronauts emphasize that the past problems are behind us, all technical difficulties have been resolved, and Starliner is ready to receive crews. Crew Flight Test will be the primary check of all systems for Starliner certification for longer missions (half a year or more) for standard ISS crew changes.
In 2014, Boeing and SpaceX received contracts from NASA for commercial crewed flights to the ISS. Boeing’s contract is valued at $4.2 billion, while SpaceX’s is valued at $2.6 billion. SpaceX began operational flights of astronauts on Crew Dragon in 2020 and has so far delivered 11 crews to the ISS: eight under the direction of NASA and three on behalf of Axiom Space, which conducts two-week science tours of the ISS with a retired NASA astronaut at the helm.
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