Go for launch: Countdown is on for Boeing’s Starliner crewed mission

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — NASA, Boeing, and United Launch Alliance are proceeding toward NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test.

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On Monday night, veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will be the first crew to launch to the International Space Station aboard a Boeing Starliner. The Calypso spacecraft will liftoff atop a ULA Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

This Friday, the launch team completed its Launch Readiness Review.  The Crew Flight Test is scheduled to launch at 10:34 p.m. on Monday, May 6.

Read: Boeing’s Starliner flight test: Meet the astronauts

After their 26-hour flight to the space station, Wilmore & Williams will spend about a week testing the Starliner’s systems at the ISS.

A successful flight test will bring NASA closer to certifying the Starliner for future crew rotation missions to the space station like those being flown by SpaceX.

Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said, “We have been striving for commercial crew to have two independent space transportation systems. That’s been our goal from commercial crew since its inception, and we’re very close to reaching that goal with the launch on Monday.”

The launch team does have a backup window at 10:11 p.m. on May 7.

Read: Starliner crew ready for launch

Starliner crew ready for launch The first crewed flight test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station atop a ULA Atlas V rocket. (WFTV.com News Staff/WFTV)

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