Boeing’s Starliner astronaut taxi is still on schedule to make its crewed debut in approximately six weeks. NASA and Boeing have been preparing for the launch of Crew Flight Test (CFT), Starliner’s first astronaut mission, which is expected to take place in mid-April. Recent progress in the capsule and its systems has maintained the target date, as announced by NASA last week. “Teams have made significant progress in resolving technical issues identified during the agency’s flight certification process,” officials wrote in a blog post on January 24.
These technical issues had delayed the liftoff of CFT from July 2023 to this spring. The main problems included components known as “soft links” on the suspension lines of Starliner’s main parachutes, which couldn’t handle as much load as expected, and the fact that much of the wiring on the capsule was wrapped in flammable P213 tape. The Starliner team has made modifications to the parachute system and has removed the flammable P213 tape from over 17 pounds of the material from the Starliner crew module, while applying tested remediation techniques to areas where it carried an increased risk to Starliner hardware.
CFT will involve NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams going to the International Space Station (ISS) for a roughly 10-day mission. Starliner is scheduled to launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
CFT will be the third spaceflight for Starliner, following a failed attempt to meet up with the orbiting lab during an uncrewed test mission in December 2019 and a successful mission in May 2022.NASA has awarded both Boeing and SpaceX contracts to transport astronauts to and from the ISS. SpaceX has already launched seven operational crewed missions for the agency with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule and is preparing for its eighth mission to the ISS next month.
