Finally, NASA has announced the target date for the first crewed Starliner flight. This flight will be conducted using Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. The space agency aims to carry out its first crewed flight in April of the coming year. However, it’s still too early to celebrate, as this is just a target date. We’ll continue to wait for the official approval of the detailed launch schedule.
NASA has marked a date on the calendar for the first crewwd Starliner flight!
Boeing Vice President and Starliner Program Manager, Mark Nappi, stated that the team aims to have the spacecraft ready by March but did not specify a potential launch date at that time. This mission is quite significant for NASA because some past missions did not go as expected. Boeing faced challenges in preparing Starliner for its first crewed flight. The initial uncrewed test flight was planned for 2017 but had to be postponed due to various issues.
The capsule eventually managed to go to space in 2019. Unfortunately, things went awry as the capsule could not reach the correct orbit to reach the International Space Station (ISS). Despite all efforts, the mission ended with complications. After three years of work, all issues were finally resolved. Starliner finally reached the space station on an uncrewed test flight in 2022. Only one test remained: the actual mission of crewed travel.
Officials had hoped to launch the first crewed flight earlier this year, targeting April. However, due to various issues, the mission was delayed until July. Additionally, these delays have been quite recurrent. NASA is more confident this time, but considering past events, the mission date may still be subject to further postponement.
In a post published on Thursday on the NASA website, it stated that the “NASA is currently planning to not schedule the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) called Starliner before mid-April.” The space agency has initiated tests for the CFT to validate the capabilities of the Starliner system. NASA mentioned that it plans to send its astronauts and test pilots, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, on a demonstration flight.
Assuming all goes well, the Starliner spacecraft will be launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. The crew and spacecraft will perform a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the western U.S. desert. They will spend about eight days at the space station before returning to Earth.
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