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Boeing Starliner astronauts 1 week from launch
NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams completed a major dress rehearsal for their Boeing Starliner mission Friday (April 26) near their launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Their quarantine training continues with a scheduled launch on May 6 to the International Space Station, a week from today.
Williams and Wilmore also recently conducted a video tour of one of their simulators, called the Boeing Mission Trainer, to demonstrate takeoff and landing procedures. The simulator is located at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Their mission, the Crew Flight Test, passed its latest flight readiness check on Thursday (April 25), although as with all launches, safety and weather checks will continue throughout the flight. The mission is expected to last about a week to confirm future semiannual operational excursions, starting with Starliner-1 in 2025.
Read more: Astronauts of the Boeing Starliner perform a general test before the launch on May 6 (photo, video)
The first Starliner astronauts completed their pre-launch dress rehearsal on May 6
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have completed a major dress rehearsal ahead of their historic launch on the Boeing Starliner as early as May 6, agency officials said Friday (April 26), hours after the rehearsal was completed.
“Wilmore and Williams completed a number of launch day milestones, including suiting up, working on the cockpit simulator and running the same software that will be used during launch,” NASA officials wrote in a blog post Friday (April 26).
The test took place at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, Florida, and included a countdown procedure with the Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket that will carry it to the International Space Station (ISS).
The crew’s weekly flight test passed its latest flight readiness check with NASA on Thursday (April 25). CFT, Starliner’s first crewed mission, aims to certify the spacecraft for six-month missions to the ISS that could begin as early as 2025. Read more about Starliner “going to launch” here on Space.com.
Starliner astronauts arrive at the launch site
The two NASA astronauts who will fly on Boeing’s first manned Starliner spacecraft have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to prepare for their historic launch to the International Space Station on May 6.
Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test Commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams land their NASA T-38 supersonic jet at the space center’s launch and landing facility after a short flight from Houston’s Ellington Field near Johnson Space Center.
Astronauts will launch to the ISS on a Boeing Starliner and an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station near KSC. Their week-long mission to the ISS is the final shakedown cruise for the Boeing Starliner to prove it is ready for NASA crewed operational flights. At the end of the mission, the Starliner will parachute back to Earth and make a ground landing in the southwestern United States.
