Boeing Starliner Preps for First Flight

The reusable capsule will return America’s ability to launch people to low Earth orbit from American soil for the first time since 2011.

On Nov. 21, 2019 the Boeing Starliner space vehicle was mated to its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
On Nov. 21, 2019 the Boeing Starliner space vehicle was mated to its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Boeing and United Launch Alliance

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Nov. 21, 2019 — Boeing’s new CST-100 Starliner is now connected to the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket that will launch the spacecraft on its first flight test to the International Space Station.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is targeted for Dec. 17.

Starliner was mated to the rocket’s upper stage in ULA’s Vertical Integration Facility after being transported this morning from Boeing’s assembly building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

On Dec. 15, two days before launch, Starliner and its Atlas V will move a final half-mile to its launch pad.

Combined, Starliner and the Atlas V stand 172 feet (52 meters) tall. The rocket generates about 1.6 million pounds of thrust at launch. The Atlas V, built in Alabama, has completed 80 successful launches since 2002.

The first Starliner flight to the International Space Station, which Boeing also built and sustains for NASA, will carry only cargo for its few-day docked stay. The second flight test, using a different spacecraft, will take Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson, along with NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann, to the station for a longer mission.

The reusable Starliner capsule is being developed in collaboration with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which will return America’s ability to launch people to low Earth orbit from American soil for the first time since Ferguson commanded the final space shuttle mission in 2011.

On Nov. 21, 2019 the Boeing Starliner space vehicle was mated to its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral, Fla.On Nov. 21, 2019 the Boeing Starliner space vehicle was mated to its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral, Fla.Boeing and United Launch Alliance

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