First crewed flight for Boeing's Starliner set for April

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First crewed flight for Boeing's Starliner set for April

The craft will be lifted into low earth orbit atop a ULA Atlas V rocket.

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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is now scheduled for an April launch for its first test mission with astronauts onboard.

Just a few days ago at a Boeing facility on the Kennedy Space Center, the capsule was attached to the service module.

“A lot of delays and a lot of money has been invested. The idea was to have independent pathways for getting U.S. astronauts into low earth orbit,” said UCF professor Josh Colwell.

But Starliner’s delays gave the other pathway, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, a two-year head start.

Like the Starliner uncrewed test mission to the International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Center last May, the craft will be lifted into low earth orbit atop a ULA Atlas V rocket.

It’s critical for NASA to have redundancy and a backup in case one of the crew programs faces issues and has to halt operations. This is important for ISS operations but also for the future.

NASA has learned that one-vehicle programs can face delays and challenges like during Apollo and Shuttle.

“Having another crew-rated, successful launch vehicle in your repertoire is certainly going to be helpful for those long-term strategic planning goals,” Colwell said.

That includes the evolution of private space stations once the ISS is retired in less than a decade.

And here on earth, the Starliner program is helping to grow operations at the Kennedy Space Center beyond just launching rockets.

“The old hangers that were used for the Space Shuttle orbiter, one of them is being used to assemble and the testing of the Starliner vehicle. I think it’s great that that capability is here at the Space Center,” said associate professor of space systems at Florida Tech Don Platt.

Peek inside Starliner! Space Station astronaut's on-orbit tour