Boeing Space ’s Starliner ballistic capsule heading back to the launchpad atop an Atlas vanadium rocket . NASA / Boeing Space
In a big step toward its first crew trajectory , Boeing Space ’s Starliner space vehicle and United Launch Alliance ’s Atlas V arugula were transmit to the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday .
In a video ( seen below ) showing the fomite make its way to the launchpad , Boeing said the Starliner and Atlas V proceed at 1 mph ( 1.6 km / h ) along racetrack from ULA launching ’s Vertical Integration Facility to Space Launch Complex-41 in homework for Saturday ’s historical flight of steps with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams .
Boeing Space’s Starliner spacecraft heading back to the launchpad atop an Atlas V rocket.NASA/Boeing Space
Today , the#Starlinerand#AtlasVstack move at ~1 mph ( 1.6 kilometre / h ) along tracks from@ulalaunch's Vertical Integration Facility to Space Launch Complex-41 , forward of the Crew Flight Test .
On June 1,@NASA_AstronautsButch Wilmore and@Astro_Suniwill launch to@Space_Station.pic.twitter.com/bl5x6uSkkC
& mdash ; Boeing Space ( @BoeingSpace)May 30 , 2024
It ’s really not the first prison term that the spacecraft and rocket has been placed on the launch area . At the scratch of this calendar month , the Starliner and Atlas V were transmit to the launch pad for a launch attempt on May 6 .
Everything was run smoothly until two hours before the scheduled launching , when railroad engineer spotted an issue with a valve on the garden rocket ’s upper stage , prompting the mission to be postponed .
As squad address the valve proceeds , a atomic number 2 leak was notice on the Starliner ballistic capsule that also had to be resolved .
While NASA has pushed back several target launching dates since then , this Saturday ’s launching search more sure than ever and — bar any last - minute hiccups — should see the Starliner blast off for a ocean trip to the International Space Station ( ISS ) with cosmonaut on board for the first sentence .
It ’s been a longsighted and rough route for the Starliner . NASA first tried to send it to the ISS in 2019 , but a series of software program issues prevented it from reaching the right orbit , make the uncrewed test mission to flush it .
It was n’t until 2022 than the Starliner was ready to fly again . That metre , the uncrewed vehicle successfully dock with the ISS , and a short while later returned to Earth in a parachute - assist landing . But after that , more government issue come out with the Starliner , and it ’s taken this long to get the space vehicle ready for its first crew flight .
