The new Starliner spacecraft from the US aerospace company Boeing is due on May 1, 2024 set off for the International Space Station ISS, for the first time with two astronauts on board. On board the Boe-CFT (Boeing Crew Flight Test) mission will be Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, two experienced astronauts from the American space agency NASA.
Astronauts on board Boeing’s Starliner space capsule for the first time
Wimore has already spent 178 days in space during his two space flights. Of these, during four external missions (EVA, extra-vehicular activity) for a total of 25 hours and 36 minutes in free space. Williams can even top this with seven EVA missions and a total of 321 days in space. She spent 50 hours and 40 minutes in free space.
Both were passengers on the former space shuttle (Williams: Atlantis and Discovery; Wilmore: Atlantis) and the Russian Soyuz missions. This will be the first flight in a modern space capsule for both of them.
The last demonstration flight of Starliner OFT-2 (Orbital Flight Test-2) with a docking maneuver to the space station was successful in May 2022. The space capsule docked on May 21st and left the ISS on May 25th. She was on the space flight for about six days. This flight was still a purely robotic test flight.
Limited options for getting people into space
Currently, on the American side, only SpaceX’s Dragon space capsule is capable of carrying people into space. Otherwise, the Russian cosmonauts will continue to fly into space with their Soyuz space capsules.
The launch date of the Boeing mission
The Boe-CFT mission will take place from the American spaceport Cape Canaveral (Florida). A ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V launch vehicle is scheduled to carry the Starliner space capsule into space on May 1, 2024 at 6:55 a.m. (CEST). The total flight duration should be eight days.