Author: Patti Bielling

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

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams stand in front of a red convertible with the ULA Atlas V rocket and Boeing Starliner spacecraft on the launch pad in the background
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams pose for a picture after a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard was 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.

NASA, SpaceX Provide Update on Crewed Space Station Mission

Crew-3 Launch
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer onboard, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission is the third crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Chari, Marshburn, Barron, Maurer launched at 9:03 p.m. EST from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission onboard the orbital outpost. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

NASA and SpaceX provided an update Feb. 4 on the status of preparations on the agency’s Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. As part of the news conference, NASA and SpaceX answered media questions on Crew Dragon’s parachutes and work ahead of its next crew launch with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, as well as with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

Listen to a full replay of the news conference, and read the agency’s statement below:

Crew safety remains a top priority for NASA. The agency and SpaceX carefully and methodically monitor the operational parachute performance on all crew and cargo flights to increase safety and reliability.

During the return of the SpaceX CRS-24 mission, teams observed a single main parachute that lagged during inflation like the return of the Crew-2 mission. The vertical descent rate of both flights was within the system design margins at splashdown, and all four main parachutes fully opened prior to splashdown on both missions.

With the commonality between Dragon spacecraft, the mission teams prioritize parachute imagery during return and recovery of the parachutes following splashdown. As partners, NASA and SpaceX jointly review the imagery data and perform physical inspection of the drogue and main parachutes after flight. The inflation model also continues to be updated to better characterize and understand margins and splashdown conditions. This review of flight data and parachute performance models will be completed prior to the launch of the Crew-4 mission and the return of Crew-3 astronauts from the International Space Station.

NASA and SpaceX are completing the parachute analysis as part of the standard postflight reviews conducted at the end of each mission. The results of the data reviews are discussed as part of joint engineering and program control boards and findings presented at the agency’s flight readiness review in advance of the next crew mission. NASA and SpaceX still are targeting launch of the Crew-4 mission Friday, April 15, to the International Space Station.