Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
Boeing’s spaceflight program could reach a major milestone Monday night with the launch of the Starliner spacecraft, which will finally carry two NASA astronauts into orbit.
The mission, called Crew Flight Test, could lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Monday at 10:34 PM ET.
Live coverage of the event will air on NASA channels starting at 6:30 PM ET on Monday, according to the space agency.
This event is a decade of preparation, the culmination of Boeing’s efforts to develop a spacecraft worthy of ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Development hiccups, test flight problems and other costly setbacks slowed Starliner’s path to the launch pad. Meanwhile, SpaceX, Boeing’s rival under NASA’s commercial crew program, has become the primary transportation provider for the space agency’s astronauts.
Now NASA and Boeing have agreed that the Starliner spacecraft is ready for its final test: allowing astronauts to take the vehicle for a test drive in space.
Senior NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will be on Monday’s mission, taking the Starliner to the International Space Station for a week.
Throughout their flight, Wilmore and Williams will conduct a series of tests, including briefly taking over the controls of the autonomous spacecraft and evaluating how the vehicle performs for astronauts.
A smooth flight could be a lucrative moment for Boeing’s spaceflight program and the company at large, which has been strained by problems in its commercial aircraft division.
Here’s what you need to know about Starliner’s journey ahead of its historic crewed test flight.
human component
Boeing officials have tried to make clear that Starliner operates separately from the industry at the company responsible for commercial airplanes. According to Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and Starliner program manager, the Starliner team’s primary concern is ensuring a smooth test mission and crew safety.
“We have people flying in this vehicle. We always take that very seriously,” Nappi said at a news conference last week. “I’ve spent my career in this business and it’s always been at the top of the list.”
Two Starliner astronauts waited years for the spacecraft to be deemed ready to carry a crew. Wilmore received his appointment in 2020 after several astronauts rotated in and out of missions during Starliner’s Crew Flight Test. NASA placed Williams on this flight in 2022 after first assigning him to a later Starliner mission in 2018.
“We had a couple of launch dates and said, ‘OK, we’re ready to go,’” Williams said at Wednesday’s press conference. “But now it feels like it’s been five days. “This is actually finally real and I have to pinch myself a little to realize that we’re actually going.”
NASA requires Boeing and SpaceX to meet a certain threshold (1 in 270) for the risk that the mission will result in the death of astronauts, Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said at a news conference last month.
“Boeing exceeds this figure with a loss of 1 in 295 in crew numbers,” he said.
Starliner’s rocky road
Boeing received a contract from NASA to build the Starliner in 2014; At the same time, the space agency chose SpaceX to build the Crew Dragon capsule.
Hoping that Boeing and SpaceX’s capsules will be ready for flight as soon as 2017, NASA has made deals worth a total of $6.8 billion to the companies.
This expectation did not come true.
SpaceX carried out the first astronaut launch of its Crew Dragon capsule in the summer of 2020, taking longer than planned. It has since completed 13 missions in orbit for NASA astronauts and paying customers.
But although NASA officials initially believed the Starliner would be ready before SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, Boeing faced years of additional delays, disruptions and additional expenses that cost the company more than $1 billion, according to public financial records.
It is particularly notable that the first Starliner test mission, flown without a crew in late 2019, was full of missteps. The craft misfired in orbit; this was a symptom of software problems that included a coding error that delayed the internal clock by 11 hours.
A second uncrewed flight test in 2022 revealed additional software issues and problems with some of the vehicle’s thrusters.
These disruptions caused the crewed flight to be postponed until 2023. But then a new set of problems arose; The spacecraft’s parachutes had some weaker components than expected, and the tape on the vehicle was found to be flammable.
Boeing then had to remove more than a mile of this band and complete additional tests on the parachutes.
Finally, after a decade of development, NASA and Boeing allowed the vehicle to fly astronauts.
‘Not everything will be perfect’
Williams and Wilmore took a measured approach in responding to questions about problems in the development of the Starliner spacecraft.
“When you say ‘throwback,’ I understand that,” Wilmore said at the final press conference. “But honestly, with all the discoveries (that’s what we call it) we’ve made strides forward.
“This is not a regression, it’s pushing forward,” he said. “Our families experienced this with us.”
Williams added that he was prepared to go on Monday’s mission with the expectation that minor problems might arise.
“We’re always finding something, and we’re always going to find something,” he said Wednesday. “Everything is definitely not going to be perfect when flying the spacecraft. And actually that’s our goal. “All of us as a large team have reached a point where we feel very confident and comfortable with the way this spacecraft flies, and we have backup procedures in place should we need them.”
“We’re here because we’re ready,” Williams said.
For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account at CNN.com