Enlarge / Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft sits on high of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Area Power Station, Florida. (credit score: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
NASA and Boeing officers are prepared for a second try to launch the primary crew check flight on the Starliner spacecraft Saturday from Cape Canaveral Area Power Station, Florida.
Liftoff of Boeing’s Starliner capsuled atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is ready for 12:25 pm EDT (16:25 UTC). NASA commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, each veteran astronauts, will take the Starliner spacecraft on its first journey into low-Earth orbit with a crew on board.
The primary crew flight on a brand new spacecraft will not be an on a regular basis occasion. Starliner is the sixth orbital-class crew spacecraft within the historical past of the US area program, following Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the area shuttle, and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. NASA signed a $4.2 billion contract with Boeing in 2014 to develop Starliner, however the venture is working years delayed and has value Boeing practically $1.5 billion in value overruns. SpaceX, in the meantime, gained a contract concurrently Boeing and began launching astronauts on the Crew Dragon 4 years in the past this week.
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