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NASA Flight Test Readiness Review Concludes, Teleconference to Follow

NASA concluded its Flight Test Readiness Review for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test and teams are proceeding toward a planned launch at 10:34 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 6, to the International Space Station. The mission will transport NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to and from the space station of the first flight with crew to certify the Starliner and its system for regular crew rotation missions. 

At 4:30 p.m., NASA will host a media teleconference (no less than one hour following completion of the readiness review) with the following participants:  

• Jim Free, NASA associate administrator 
• Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate 
• Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program 
• Dana Weigel, manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program 
• Mark Nappi, vice president and manager, Boeing Commercial Crew Program
• Emily Nelson, NASA chief flight director

The media teleconference will air live on the agency’s website. 

Next up is a mission dress rehearsal on Friday, April 26, for NASA, Boeing, and ULA (United Launch Alliance). Wilmore and Williams, commander and pilot, will mimic launch day operations. The astronauts load in their spacesuits, walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, and get into Boeing’s Astrovan to travel to the spacecraft. Teams will practice countdown scenarios, prep Starliner’s crew module for flight, close the hatch, and conduct readiness polls of managers and engineers. 

Wilmore and Williams are the first to launch aboard Boeing’s Starliner on an Atlas V rocket. The astronauts will spend about a week at the orbiting laboratory before the crew capsule makes a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern United States. 

After successful completion of the mission, NASA will begin the final process of certifying Starliner and its systems for crewed rotation missions to the space station. The Starliner capsule, with a diameter of 15 feet (4.56m) and the capability to steer automatically or manually, will carry four astronauts, or a mix of crew and cargo, for NASA missions to low Earth orbit. 

Learn more about NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test by following the mission blog, the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew on X, and commercial crew on Facebook. 

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Elyna Niles-Carnes

NASA Flight Test Readiness Review Concludes, Teleconference to Follow

NASA concluded its Flight Test Readiness Review for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test and teams are proceeding toward a planned launch at 10:34 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 6, to the International Space Station. The mission will transport NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to and from the space station of the first flight with crew to certify the Starliner and its system for regular crew rotation missions. 

At 4:30 p.m., NASA will host a media teleconference (no less than one hour following completion of the readiness review) with the following participants:  

• Jim Free, NASA associate administrator 
• Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate 
• Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program 
• Dana Weigel, manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program 
• Mark Nappi, vice president and manager, Boeing Commercial Crew Program
• Emily Nelson, NASA chief flight director

The media teleconference will air live on the agency’s website. 

Next up is a mission dress rehearsal on Friday, April 26, for NASA, Boeing, and ULA (United Launch Alliance). Wilmore and Williams, commander and pilot, will mimic launch day operations. The astronauts load in their spacesuits, walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, and get into Boeing’s Astrovan to travel to the spacecraft. Teams will practice countdown scenarios, prep Starliner’s crew module for flight, close the hatch, and conduct readiness polls of managers and engineers. 

Wilmore and Williams are the first to launch aboard Boeing’s Starliner on an Atlas V rocket. The astronauts will spend about a week at the orbiting laboratory before the crew capsule makes a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern United States. 

After successful completion of the mission, NASA will begin the final process of certifying Starliner and its systems for crewed rotation missions to the space station. The Starliner capsule, with a diameter of 15 feet (4.56m) and the capability to steer automatically or manually, will carry four astronauts, or a mix of crew and cargo, for NASA missions to low Earth orbit. 

Learn more about NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test by following the mission blog, the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew on X, and commercial crew on Facebook. 

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Elyna Niles-Carnes

Cosmonauts Complete Spacewalk to Install Hardware, Science

Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub concluded their spacewalk April 25 at 3:33 p.m. EDT after four hours and 36 minutes.

Kononenko and Chub completed their major objectives, which included completing the deployment of one panel on a synthetic radar communications system on the Russian segment of the complex and installing equipment and experiments to analyze the level of corrosion on station surfaces and modules.

This was the seventh spacewalk in Kononenko’s career, and the second for Chub. It is the 270th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here: www.nasa.gov/subscribe

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Mark Garcia

Cosmonauts Complete Spacewalk to Install Hardware, Science

Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub concluded their spacewalk April 25 at 3:33 p.m. EDT after four hours and 36 minutes.

Kononenko and Chub completed their major objectives, which included completing the deployment of one panel on a synthetic radar communications system on the Russian segment of the complex and installing equipment and experiments to analyze the level of corrosion on station surfaces and modules.

This was the seventh spacewalk in Kononenko’s career, and the second for Chub. It is the 270th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here: www.nasa.gov/subscribe

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Mark Garcia

Dreams Become Reality for NASA’s Boeing Flight Test Crew

Momentum is building for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test launch, scheduled for Monday, May 6, 2024.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived in a T-38 jet April 25 at the Launch and Landing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a short flight from Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA leaders welcomed Wilmore and Williams and held a short news conference.

“Our hearts and souls are in this spacecraft and a little part of us will be lifting off with Butch and Suni,” said NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Deputy Manager Dana Hutcherson, who has been with the program for 13 years.

Wilmore and Williams are targeting 10:34 p.m. EDT Monday, May 6, for launch aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and ULA’s (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This will be the first crewed flight of Starliner for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Click below to watch the earlier broadcast of the welcome ceremony.

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Elyna Niles-Carnes