The Starliner capsule is due to fly from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday with a pair of test pilots to the International Space Station for a weeklong stay.
Boeing is taking another crack Saturday at launching astronauts for the first time aboard its new space capsule, after a delay for leak checks and rocket repairs.
White with black and blue trim, Boeing's Starliner capsule is about 10 feet tall and 15 feet in diameter. It can fit up to seven people, though NASA crews typically will number four. The company settled on the name Starliner nearly a decade ago, a twist on the name of Boeing’s early Stratoliner and the current Dreamliner.
“We’re not putting our heads in the sand,” Williams told The Associated Press. “Sure, Boeing has had its problems. But we are the QA . Our eyes are on the spacecraft.”Starliner will blast off on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It will be the first time astronauts ride an Atlas since NASA’s Project Mercury, starting with John Glenn when he became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.
Starliner should reach the space station in roughly 26 hours. The seven station residents will have their eyes peeled on the approaching capsule. The arrival of a new vehicle is"a really big deal. You leave nothing to chance,” NASA astronaut Michael Barratt told the AP from orbit. Starliner will remain docked for eight days, undergoing checkouts before landing in New Mexico or elsewhere in the American West.Both companies’ capsules are designed to be autonomous and reusable.
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