The Joint Space Launch of the Boeing Extra-Solar Flight Test and the Status of the Starliner Mission, a Project that’s Been Announced
It has been a long time since the launch of the Starliner. With this highly anticipated liftoff, Boeing will officially be the second company (after SpaceX) to partner with NASA to carry humans into space. The Starliner will be crewed by NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who will head to the International Space Station. The plan is for the astronauts to remain there for a week or so, then return to planet Earth, reentering the atmosphere aboard the same craft and then landing under parachutes.
The importance of having two different US crewed vehicles was emphasized by NASA in a news conference on May 3. “This crewed flight test is a critical stepping stone to reaching that broader goal.”
NASA’s objective with outsourcing missions was to allow them to focus on goals other than returning humans to the moon and eventually to Mars. “The whole concept is to get to a point where NASA is freed up to think about the next horizon beyond the space station,” says Daniel Dumbacher, chief executive officer of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
SpaceX, which received an initial $2.6 billion as part of the program, has already fulfilled its side of the bargain. The Crew Dragon has carried more than 50 people into space and launched its first humans to space for NASA in 2020. Boeing has had trouble with Starliner, which was received $4.2 billion.
This mission will be a welcome hit of good news for the company if it succeeds. Boeing has drawn a lot of presumably unwanted attention in recent months, as an array of technical malfunctions on its commercial airline flights have terrified travelers and made headlines. These events come not long after two of Boeing’s 737 Max planes crashed in 2018 and 2019. Boeing wants to write a whole new chapter about bringing more people into space and is eager to claw back public goodwill.
The launch is a jointly planned event between Boeing and NASA, and is scheduled for Monday, May 6, at 10:34 pm EDT, 7:34 PDT. You can watch the livestream of the launch a few ways. It will stream on NASA’s official website and YouTube channel, as well as on NASA+, the agency’s subscription service. If you’re on mobile, the stream is also available on the NASA app. You can watch it here as well.
