Boeing Starliner 1st crew to launch on Monday. Watch here!

Watch the livestream of the 1st crewed launch of Boeing Starliner in the player above. Coverage begins at 6 p.m. EDT Monday, with the launch set for 10:34 p.m. EDT.

First crewed Boeing Starliner to launch Monday

Boeing’s Starliner will make its first crewed launch to the International Space Station on Monday, May 6, 2024. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will ride a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is scheduled for 10:34 p.m. EDT Monday (or 2:34 UTC on Tuesday, May 7). Watch the livestream in the player above.

The two astronauts will spend about a week at the International Space Station before making their return journey on Starliner. Starliner will land in the American West with the aid of parachutes and airbags. This is the third test for Starliner. The most recent test was in 2022, when Starliner visited the space station without humans onboard.

Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT) astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in T-38 pre-flight activities at Ellington Field in Houston, on August 16, 2022. Image via Robert Markowitz/ NASA.

Progress and goals

The goal of Starliner is to have a reusable crew capsule that can be flown on up to 10 missions. After NASA retired the space shuttle program in 2011, it has relied on others to get astronauts into space. Some astronauts have hitched a ride on Russian rockets. Then in 2020, SpaceX’s Dragon began transporting astronauts to the space station. Boeing’s Starliner would be an important backup to these space efforts.

But it’s been a long road to Boeing’s first crewed launch day. As Wendy Whitman Cobb of Air University wrote for The Conversation:

Starliner’s development has come with setbacks. Though Boeing received $4.2 billion from NASA, compared with $2.6 billion for SpaceX, Boeing spent more than $1.5 billion extra in developing the spacecraft.

On Starliner’s first uncrewed test flight in 2019, a series of software and hardware failures prevented it from getting to its planned orbit as well as docking with the International Space Station. After testing out some of its systems, it landed successfully at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

In 2022, after identifying and making more than 80 fixes, Starliner conducted a second uncrewed test flight. This time, the vehicle did successfully dock with the International Space Station and landed six days later in New Mexico.

And one day, as space tourism increases, Starliner may even play a role in taking you, or someone you know, into space.

Here’s an image of an uncrewed Starliner in 2022, as it headed toward docking with the International Space Station. Image via NASA.

Bottom line: The 1st crewed Boeing Starliner is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on Monday, May 6, 2024. Watch a launch livestream here!

The post Boeing Starliner 1st crew to launch on Monday. Watch here! first appeared on EarthSky.

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Watch the livestream of the 1st crewed launch of Boeing Starliner in the player above. Coverage begins at 6 p.m. EDT Monday, with the launch set for 10:34 p.m. EDT.

First crewed Boeing Starliner to launch Monday

Boeing’s Starliner will make its first crewed launch to the International Space Station on Monday, May 6, 2024. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will ride a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is scheduled for 10:34 p.m. EDT Monday (or 2:34 UTC on Tuesday, May 7). Watch the livestream in the player above.

The two astronauts will spend about a week at the International Space Station before making their return journey on Starliner. Starliner will land in the American West with the aid of parachutes and airbags. This is the third test for Starliner. The most recent test was in 2022, when Starliner visited the space station without humans onboard.

Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT) astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in T-38 pre-flight activities at Ellington Field in Houston, on August 16, 2022. Image via Robert Markowitz/ NASA.

Progress and goals

The goal of Starliner is to have a reusable crew capsule that can be flown on up to 10 missions. After NASA retired the space shuttle program in 2011, it has relied on others to get astronauts into space. Some astronauts have hitched a ride on Russian rockets. Then in 2020, SpaceX’s Dragon began transporting astronauts to the space station. Boeing’s Starliner would be an important backup to these space efforts.

But it’s been a long road to Boeing’s first crewed launch day. As Wendy Whitman Cobb of Air University wrote for The Conversation:

Starliner’s development has come with setbacks. Though Boeing received $4.2 billion from NASA, compared with $2.6 billion for SpaceX, Boeing spent more than $1.5 billion extra in developing the spacecraft.

On Starliner’s first uncrewed test flight in 2019, a series of software and hardware failures prevented it from getting to its planned orbit as well as docking with the International Space Station. After testing out some of its systems, it landed successfully at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

In 2022, after identifying and making more than 80 fixes, Starliner conducted a second uncrewed test flight. This time, the vehicle did successfully dock with the International Space Station and landed six days later in New Mexico.

And one day, as space tourism increases, Starliner may even play a role in taking you, or someone you know, into space.

Here’s an image of an uncrewed Starliner in 2022, as it headed toward docking with the International Space Station. Image via NASA.

Bottom line: The 1st crewed Boeing Starliner is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on Monday, May 6, 2024. Watch a launch livestream here!

The post Boeing Starliner 1st crew to launch on Monday. Watch here! first appeared on EarthSky.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/oWZ8Nar