NEW DELHI: After being delayed for about four years, Boeing's Starliner is now on track for its first manned mission on May 6, officials said.
The Crew Flight Test (CFT) aims to send NASA astronauts and test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on a roughly 10-day mission that will demonstrate the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system.
The CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is likely to launch at 10:34 p.m. EDT on May 6, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Boeing and NASA also successfully completed the spacecraft’s flight test readiness review at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“Starliner is go for launch,” said Boeing Space in a post on X.com, after the review.
“Teams are ‘go’ for launch at 10:34 pm ET May 6 from SLC-41,” added NASA.
Wilmore and Williams will become the first to launch aboard Boeing’s Starliner on an Atlas V rocket.
The astronauts will spend about a week at the International Space Station, and then make a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern US.
"I can say with confidence that the teams have absolutely done their due diligence," NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said during a call with reporters this afternoon, Space.com reported.
"There's still a little bit of closeout work to do, but we are on track for launch at 10:34 (p.m.) Eastern Daylight Time on Monday, May 6."
Meanwhile, the astronauts have also entered the mandatory pre-flight quarantine in preparation for the mission. This will help ensure the health and safety of the crew before liftoff, as well as prevent sickness of the astronauts at the space station, NASA said.
If the CST-100 spacecraft succeeds in its first crewed mission, Starliner will be used to carry four astronauts, or a mix of crew and cargo, for NASA missions to low Earth orbit.