Boeing ’s CST-100 Starliner space vehicle . Boeing / Boeing
NASA said on Wednesday that it ’s made significant procession on resolving technical issues with its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft , put it on course for its first crewed test flight in April at the earliest .
The distance agency wants to use the Boeing - made Starliner ejection seat for crewed flight to and from the International Space Station ( ISS ) , give it a second option alongside SpaceX ’s seek - and - tested Crew Dragon condensation .
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.Boeing / Boeing
But the Starliner ’s ontogenesis has been far from liquid , failing a trial run flight in 2019due to multiple issues before reaching the ISS in a second test flying that pick out three year of careful preparation . Since then , on-going issues have get NASA to check the launch of its first crewed flight of steps using the Starliner . But now it seems that the ballistic capsule is almost ready to fell again .
NASA saidthat following a successful drop mental testing earlier this month in which it was able to validate late alteration to the spacecraft ’s parachute arrangement , NASA and Boeing are now bear a final analysis of the test data and aim to complete overall system certification in readiness for the first crew flight , which will take two astronaut to the space post .
In other piece of work , Boeing has removed around 4,300 metrical unit of tape that was find to be a flammability risk in certain environmental condition .
personnel department also lately carried out a two - day undock - to - landing place ( let in undock , entry , landing place , and bunch recovery ) clothes rehearsal with convalescence crew on the ground at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico , NASA say .
Despite the progress , plenty of work still postulate to be dispatch before the Starliner launches aboard a ULA ( United Launch Alliance ) Atlas V skyrocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida . It include the closing of Crew Flight Test authentication ; an practice session simulating operational conditions to practice the various phases of the military mission with the crew , flight of steps accountant , and flat coat operations squad ; and stack the Atlas quint rocket and Starliner before rolling them to the launchpad .
The delegacy , when it at last mother afoot , will see NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams flying aboard Starliner to the ISS , where they ’ll spend up to two weeks living and working alongside other ISS crewmembers before returning in the Starliner for a parachute - assist landing place in the SW of the U.S.
