[imagesource:flickr]

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are the first people to launch aboard Boeing’s Starliner to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program this Saturday, 1 June.

The crew, who had previously been quarantined in Houston, returned to Kennedy Space Center on May 28 and will remain in quarantine at the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building until the launch.

The pair will spend a week on the ISS before heading back down to Earth.

The mission follows a series of delays, including a scrubbed launch attempt on May 6 due to a “buzzing” valve aboard the Atlas V rocket and a subsequent helium leak in the Starliner spacecraft.

The Starliner spacecraft, built by Boeing in collaboration with NASA, is designed to transport astronauts to and from the ISS. The CFT mission will test the spacecraft’s capabilities, including its ability to safely carry crew members to the space station and return them to Earth.

Today, the #Starliner and #AtlasV stack moved at ~1 mph (1.6 km/h) along tracks from @ulalaunch‘s Vertical Integration Facility to Space Launch Complex-41, ahead of the Crew Flight Test.

On June 1, @NASA_Astronauts Butch Wilmore and @Astro_Suni will launch to @Space_Station. pic.twitter.com/bl5x6uSkkC

— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) May 30, 2024

NASA has said that if there are any hiccups in the launch, a backup launch opportunity is available on Sunday, June 2, with additional launch windows on Wednesday, June 5, and Thursday, June 6.

The Starliner craft is named Calypso, who in Greek mythology was a nymph who lived on the island of Ogygia, where, according to Homer’s Odyssey, she detained Odysseus for seven years. Not sure what to read into that.

So far, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has been leading the commercial space race, with Boeing hoping to prove it can do the job as well as Elon’s crew.

[source:indiatoday]