Watch today as NASA Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test finally – most likely – will take off to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA is scheduled to begin broadcasting its coverage at 6:30 p.m. ET on his YouTube channelwith the official launch scheduled for 10:34 p.m. ET. The spaceship will carry two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.
We say “very likely” because the journey to date has not been easy. Ten years ago, NASA first chose Boeing and Space X to build a spacecraft that would fly from the United States to the ISS. Boeing received a $4.2 billion contract, while NASA awarded $2.6 billion to SpaceX. However, the latter had its first successful crewed flight in 2020 and has reproduced it a dozen times since.
Boeing’s Starliner failed to reach orbit during its first uncrewed orbital test flight in 2019 due to excessive fuel consumption. A follow-up flight was planned for August 2021 but was canceled due to a valve problem, with Boeing ultimately reaching the ISS in spring 2022 with an uncrewed ship. Two crewed flight projects came and went, with flaws in aspects such as the parachute system. Last August, Boeing announced that it would have to fix these problems by March 2024.
We are now two months later than that initial goal and Boeing, Williams and Wilmore appear ready to take off. “We are ready, the spacecraft is ready and the teams are ready,” Wilmore told reporters. NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free added: “The first crewed flight of a new spacecraft is an absolutely critical milestone. The lives of our crew members Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are at stake – we Let’s not take this lightly at all.”
