Boeing’s Starliner assembled for its crewed debut

25 Jan. () –

The crew and service modules of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner docked on January 19 prior to its first launch with astronauts to the International Space Station.

During the operation, conducted at the company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane lifted the reusable crew module onto the new service module. to turn it into a fully operational spaceship.

The completed spacecraft will carry NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams to the space station for crewed flight test as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, with which spacecraft are already in regular use. Dragon from Space X.

Starliner will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket not before April 2023 to test the comprehensive capabilities of the Starliner system prior to scheduled crewed flights to the station, reports NASA.

For this flight, Starliner will launch on an approximately eight-day mission to the ISS. In May 2022, Boeing successfully launched Starliner on an uncrewed test flight to the space station. The mission was deemed a success, despite experiencing multiple problems during the flight.

Boeing’s Starliner program has suffered a variety of setbacks over the years, resulting in additional expenses, bringing the total cost of the program for Boeing to $883 million from 2020.