Boeing's Starliner Spacecraft: Launchpad Arrival | NASA Kennedy

Boeing's Starliner Spacecraft: Launchpad Arrival | NASA Kennedy

The Boeing Starliner spacecraft is lifted at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Starliner will be secured atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The spacecraft rolled out from Boeing's Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center earlier in the day.

This is an important milestone ahead of the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission launch on May 6, 2024.

Starliner will carry NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station for a docking to the forward port of the Harmony module. Ahead of Starliner’s launch, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 crewmates will board the Dragon spacecraft, currently docked to the forward port, for a relocation to the zenith port of Harmony to allow for Starliner docking. The date shift also allows additional time for the crew aboard the microgravity laboratory to complete science and cargo logistics ahead of the departure of the Dragon cargo spacecraft.

As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Starliner will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Williams and Wilmore will spend about a week docked to the International Space Station ahead of a return to Earth in the western United States. The flight test will help NASA verify whether the Starliner system is ready to fly regular crew rotation missions to space station for the agency.

Through the Commercial Crew Program (CCP), NASA is working with business partners to build rockets and spacecraft. The Commercial Crew Program has made it possible for astronauts to launch to space from the United States once again.

For more info on CFT and Starliner, visit: 

boeing.com/starliner

Learn more about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Image Date: April 16, 2024

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