Weather 95% ‘Go’ for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test

From left to right, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams pose for a picture after a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft aboard rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex-41 ahead of the NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, Saturday, May 4, 2024 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Photo Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Weather is looking promising for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test to send two of the agency’s astronauts to the International Space Station. Launch weather officers with the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a 95% chance of favorable weather conditions at the launch pad for a liftoff, scheduled for 10:34 p.m. EDT.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, commander, and Suni Williams, pilot, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will launch from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The Starliner spacecraft, named Calypso, can fly autonomously or be steered manually and is expected to rendezvous and dock with the space station on Wednesday, May 8. Wilmore and Williams will spend about a week at the orbiting laboratory before the crew capsule makes a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern United States.

Once the flight test is complete, NASA will begin the final process of certifying Starliner and its systems for crewed rotation missions to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

NASA’s mission coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.

Learn more about NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test by following the mission blog, the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew on X, and commercial crew on Facebook.