Elijah Williams
Two veteran astronauts flew to the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday afternoon to prepare for the first piloted launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, a long-awaited flight that has been years in the making. late after two unmanned test flights and extensive work to resolve a variety of technical issues.
Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams, two of NASA’s most experienced astronauts with four previous space flights, 11 spacewalks and 500 days in orbit between them, touched down on the spaceport’s 3-mile-long runway in T-jet trainers. -38 after a flight from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA/Frank Michaux
“We love Florida. We love the Kennedy Space Center because this is where they launch humans into space,” an excited Wilmore told reporters on the tarmac. “In less than two weeks, the next flight we take, we’ll be lying on our backs and (launching) into the sky.”
Completing the Starliner crew flight test, or CFT, “will expand (NASA’s) capability to and from the space station, and that is vitally important,” he said. “We’re excited to be here.”
Said Williams: “This is where the rubber meets the road, where we’re going to leave this planet, and that’s pretty cool!”
Within hours of the crew’s arrival, 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 releasing the Starliner for launch atop a United Launch. Alliance Atlas 5 rocket at 10:34 pm EDT on Monday, May 6.
If everything goes well, Wilmore and Williams, both former Navy test pilots, will dock with the space station on May 8 and return to Earth on or shortly after May 15. 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, NASA CCP manager. “All the (international) partners and then our entire team searched ‘go’ to proceed to launch on May 6th. Not only that, but we (signed) what we call a provisional human rating for the Starliner for this crewed flight test. .. It was a huge deal for NASA and our entire team.”
ULA
NASA awarded two Commercial Crew Program contracts in 2014, one to SpaceX valued at $2.6 billion and another to Boeing for $4.2 billion, to spur the development of independent spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts from and to the International Space Station.
The goal was to end dependence on Russia’s Soyuz after the space shuttle’s retirement and resume launching American astronauts from American soil aboard American rockets and spacecraft. Equally important for NASA is having two independent spacecraft for crew flights to the ISS in case a company’s ferry becomes stranded for any reason.
SpaceX began piloted flights in May 2020, successfully launching 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 on eight operational flights to the laboratory complex, three commercial visits and one privately funded flight to low Earth orbit.
Boeing launched its Starliner in a unpiloted test flight in December 2019, but the spacecraft faced major software and communications problems that hampered an attempt to dock with the space station and nearly led to the destruction of the crew spacecraft.
A second unpiloted 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. Fixing this issue delayed the second test flight to May 2022.
Although the mission was successful, additional problems were discovered, including parachute problems and concerns about possibly flammable protective tape wrapped around internal wiring. Fixing these problems and finding space for a visit in the space station’s complex flight schedule ended up delaying the crew’s flight test until May 6.
Given away 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 did not view the Starliner launch in the context of the widely publicized problems with Boeing aircraft.
NASA
“I don’t think it necessarily has anything to do with Boeing and a flight taking off,” he said. “They are all vitally important. This is human spaceflight. That saying you’ve heard since Apollo 13, failure is not an option? That has nothing to do specifically with Boeing or this program. That’s all the that we do in humans.
“So this is no more or less important than anything else we’re doing,” he said. “It turns out that’s the most important thing we’re doing right now.”
Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Starliner program manager, agreed, saying that “the success of this mission has always been very important to us as a program for several reasons.”
“First, we have humans flying this vehicle,” he said. “We take this very seriously in human spaceflight. I have spent my career in this business and it has always been at the top of the list.
“Second, this is an important capability for us, for NASA, and so we signed up to do this, and we’re going to do this and be successful at it. So I don’t think about it in terms of what’s important to Boeing, as much as I think about it, as in terms of what’s important to this program, what’s important to deliver on, the commitments we’ve made to our clients.”
