First Crewed Starliner Flight Test Update from Boeing, NASA

NASA and Boeing held a mission overview media teleconference Friday to provide a status update on the first crewed Starliner flight test of the CST-100 to the International Space Station.

"We're taking our time and being very vigilant as we work through the final preparations of the flight hardware, flight software, the crew training and closing out all the certification products that we need to rate the Starliner for flight." Steve Stitch, NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager.

Steve Stitch, NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager.

During the call, managers shared mission progress and discussed upcoming milestones ahead of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT), which is targeted to launch no earlier than mid-to-late April to the microgravity laboratory.

The first crewed Starliner flight test is the final flight test prior to regular crewed missions to the space station on the next-generation system. For CFT, the Starliner spacecraft will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, returning approximately eight days later in White Sands, New Mexico. The flight will carry two NASA astronaut test pilots, Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams, on the demonstration flight to prove the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system.

First Crewed Starliner Flight Test Still Targeted for April

"We're taking our time and being very vigilant as we work through the final preparations of the flight hardware, flight software, the crew training and closing out all the certification products that we need to rate the Starliner for flight," said Steve Stitch, NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager. "When we look at the CFT mission, just from the manifest perspective, the window for CFT is kind of the middle of April to the end of April."

‘We have some incremental decision points ahead of us based on the ISS availability and the work that we have going forward," said Mark Nappi, vice president and Program Manager, Boeing Commercial Crew Program. "So we'll continue down that path and take it ver slowly and make sure that we address everything that needs to be addressed."

Following a successful first crewed flight test, NASA will begin the final process of certifying the Starliner spacecraft and systems for regular crew rotation flights to the space station.

(Source: NASA news release and conference call. Images provided and from file)