BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Veteran NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are closer than they’ve ever been to the first crewed launch of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner to the International Space Station.
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The Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT) will launch as soon as May 1, 2024, depending upon the other traffic at the ISS.
During Friday’s update, NASA’s Commercial Crew Manager Steve Stitch said, “The goal after CFT is to look at data from the flight and then have certification toward the end of the year.”
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It’s always been part of NASA’s plan for its Commercial Crew Program to have two dissimilar systems to ferry astronauts to the ISS, the SpaceX Crew Dragon, and the Boeing Starliner.
Space X launched its first crewed flight test in May of 2020, with NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken.
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The company recently launched its 8th crewed operational mission to the ISS.
Pending a successful flight test, Boeing could launch its first operational mission to the space station early next year.
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