CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – May rocket power be with you!
An Atlas V rocket rolled to the launch pad on Saturday (May 4), also Star Wars Day, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station days before its historic first mission with astronauts. At the helm of the United Launch Alliance booster was Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which will also make its first flight with humans on board after launching no earlier than Monday (May 6).
The immediate launch window opens at 10:34 PM EDT (0234 GMT Tuesday, May 7) and you can watch the historic International Space Station (ISS) mission live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.
The mission, called Crew Flight Test (CFT), will send two veteran NASA astronauts and former US Navy test pilots aloft: Butch Wilmore will command the mission and Sonny Williams will be the pilot. The duo is undergoing quarantine at the nearby Kennedy Space Center.
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I joined a group of about 35 reporters on a small hill about a mile from Space Launch Complex 41 for the Florida rocket’s first-ever launch, where the rocket always headed in the right direction toward the pad.
In August 2006, I made an attempt to see the STS-115 mission fly to the International Space Station. Then life happened. During my flight from Canada to the Space Coast, the space shuttle Atlantis launch pad was struck by lightning. While NASA took some time to double-check all systems, Tropical Storm Ernesto made its way up the coast.
So, instead of launching, I watched Atlantis be towed toward the shelter — then stopped on its way to the vehicle assembly building, and towed back to the launch pad when the tropical storm moved far enough away to make that a safe option. I definitely missed this launch, but I don’t regret it, because this situation was very unique.
The Starliner’s presence here two decades later is also unique, as the first spacecraft to carry astronauts into space from Cape Canaveral since Apollo 7 on October 11, 1968.
No human has flown on an Atlas rocket since the Gordon Cooper Mercury-Atlas 9 mission on May 15, 1963 (almost exactly 61 years before the CFT Starliner launch attempt).
If the CFT plan goes according to plan, Boeing will soon join SpaceX in sending astronauts for six months at a time to the International Space Station. This is after the two companies obtained commercial crew contracts from NASA in 2014, with Boeing worth $4.2 billion at the time, compared to $2.6 billion for SpaceX.
While SpaceX has sent 12 crewed missions to the International Space Station since 2020, including a test flight of astronauts, Starliner has waited an additional four years. Boeing’s first flight to the International Space Station in December 2019 encountered so many computer errors that the Starliner was unable to reach its designated orbit. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and dozens of repairs, the Starliner finally made a second successful unmanned test flight in May 2022.
The CFT had also been expected to launch earlier, most recently in 2023. But critical problems found last year delayed that, as Boeing officials sought to address issues with loads on the capsule’s main parachutes, as well as wires covered in flammable tape.
NASA and Boeing have carefully reviewed all the details before this flight and confirmed in a press conference on Friday (May 3) that everything is ready to move forward in terms of safety. The weather is also 95% favorable for Monday’s launch attempt on the Space Coast; However, proper technical fitness and good weather checks will continue until the moment of take-off.
Related: The first Boeing Starliner astronauts are ready to launch to the International Space Station for NASA (exclusively)
The spacecraft’s first operational mission will be Starliner-1, no later than 2025, and will send at least three astronauts to the ISS: NASA’s Mike Finke (who also serves as a backup astronaut CFT), along with NASA’s Scott Tingle and Canadian . Joshua Kutric of the Space Agency (Capcom for CFT Ascension Phase.)
NASA plans to replace SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in sending astronauts at least every six months from US soil. The Russian Soyuz spacecraft will also continue to send some of the agency’s astronauts into space, for technical and political reasons.
While NASA aims to make these commercial crew vehicles operational beyond the life of the ISS, the orbital complex is expected to end operations in 2030. Russia may withdraw as soon as 2028, though all timelines are subject to change as work Countries are on the next implementation. Generation space programmes.
