A Boeing spacecraft designed to take astronauts to the International Space Station is now attached to the rocket that will send it on a test mission as early as May 6th.
The Starliner spacecraft is now sitting atop the ULA Atlas FIve rocket that will send it and two NASA astronauts on a mission to the ISS, launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff is scheduled for no earlier than 10:34 p.m. EDT Monday, May 6, from Launch Complex-41.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will fly in the spacecraft -- its first human passengers -- on a critical test mission of Starliner. The duo are experienced astronauts, making previous trips to space on NASA's Space Shuttle and Russia's Soyuz capsule.
Boeing is working with NASA to transport astronauts to and from the station. The first uncrewed test flight of the vehicle in 2019 failed to reach the station due to a software issue. The company spent about $600 million to fix the issues. A second attempt in May of 2022 was considered a success.
For this third mission of Starliner, the capsule will dock with the station where it and its passengers will spend about a week before returning to Earth, landing underneath a canopy of parachutes in the southwestern U.S.
After completion of the mission, NASA will begin the final certification process of the vehicle ahead of regular crew rotation missions to the space station.
NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to design and develop a crew transportation system. SpaceX launched its first astronaut test mission in 2020 and has since launched crews to the station about every six months.
