Starliner Finally Heads to the ISS
Docking Expected Shortly After Noon (EDT) Thursday
The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, carrying Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, commander, and Suni Williams, pilot, are on a course to the International Space Station.
The crew is on a roughly 25.5-hour journey with rendezvous and docking expected at 12:15 p.m. EDT, Thursday, June 6. Starliner will autonomously dock to the station and remain at the orbiting laboratory for about a week. Although Starliner is designed to dock autonomously, the astronauts aboard the spacecraft will demonstrate manual control processes and capabilities before the spacecraft makes its automated final approach.
The crew flight test mission makes history in several ways. As the first crewed launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, Williams is the first female astronaut to fly on the first flight of a crewed spacecraft. The launch also marks the first crewed launch on the ULA Atlas V rocket and the first crewed launch on an Atlas-family class rocket since Gordon Cooper on the last Mercury program flight aboard “Faith 7” in May 1963.
The launch was delayed several times due to technical issues with the spacecraft and ground support computers.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said prior to the launch that following the test flight, Starliner will begin regular crew rotation flights to ISS carrying four astronauts on each flight.