Boeing’s Starliner Cleared for Liftoff: Scheduled Launch Date Confirmed

Boeing’s manned spacecraft has finally been cleared for liftoff.

Space science media Space.com recently reported that the launch date of the American aerospace company Boeing’s “Starliner” manned spacecraft has been confirmed for the 6th of next month (hereinafter local time).

The Boeing Starliner manned space capsule was unveiled at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in April last year (Photo = Boeing)

Recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Boeing conducted a “flight readiness review” (FRR) for the Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission and found no particular problems, so it will be scheduled for next month as originally planned NASA announced that it plans to launch the Starliner on 1.

“There is still some refinement work to be done, but launch is scheduled for May 6 at 10:34 pm ET,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Free.

Starliner is scheduled to launch next month from the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida aboard United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will board the spacecraft and head to the International Space Station (ISS).

Starliner is a 7-seater crewed spacecraft developed by Boeing and used as a transportation system to and from the ISS. Instead of using the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to travel to and from the ISS, NASA plans to outsource it to a private company. Boeing and SpaceX are developing crewed spacecraft, and SpaceX is already sending astronauts to the ISS.

View of the Boeing Starliner docking as seen from the International Space Station in 2022 (Photo = NASA TV)

Starliner has never traveled to the ISS with people on board in the past, but has conducted two uncrewed test missions. It was first launched for an uncrewed test to the ISS in December 2019, but failed to enter the target orbit and managed to send Starliner to the ISS uncrewed in May 2022.

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NASA and Boeing had originally planned to launch a crewed spacecraft in July last year, but the program was postponed when a flaw in the Starliner was discovered before liftoff. Subsequently, due to the complexity of the ISS program, the launch schedule was postponed and the launch date was finally set for May.

NASA explained that it is important for the United States to have more spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts directly to the ISS, helping address a variety of emergency scenarios that can occur in space.

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