7 months ago
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After years of delays and stumbles, Boeing is finally poised to launch astronauts to the International Space Station for Nasa. It's the first flight of Boeing's Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of Nasa pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station. (Photo/Agencies)
CAPE CANAVERAL: Boeing Co's new
Starliner astronaut capsule
is poised for launch of its long-delayed inaugural
crewed test flight
to the
International Space Station
, two years after its first voyage without humans to the orbital laboratory.
The gumdrop-shaped CST-100 Starliner with two astronauts aboard was due for liftoff at 10.34pm (8.04am IST Tuesday) from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carried atop an Atlas V rocket furnished by the
Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture
United Launch Alliance (ULA).
Riding aboard the Starliner, designed to carry up to seven crew members, are veteran Nasa astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore, 61, a retired US navy captain, and Sunita "Sunni" Williams, 58, a former navy aviator and test pilot. They have logged a combined 500 days in space over the course of two missions each to the space station. Wilmore is the designated commander for flight, with Williams in the pilot seat.
Although Starliner is designed to fly autonomously, the crew can assume control of the spacecraft if necessary, and the test flight calls for Wilmore and Williams to practice maneuvering the vehicle manually.
If all goes as planned, the capsule will arrive at the space station after a flight of about 26 hours and dock with ISS early Wednesday. Wilmore and Williams are expected to remain at the space station for about a week before riding the Starliner back to Earth for a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the US - a first for crewed Nasa missions. The Starliner will give Nasa its first alternative to sending astronauts to low-Earth orbit from US soil since Elon Musk's SpaceX began doing so in 2020.
