NASA and Boeing plan to conduct the first crewed test flight of the Starliner capsule in early May. The spacecraft will become the second commercial taxi to the International Space Station (ISS), alongside SpaceX's Dragon.
The test flight won't take place until May 1 at the earliest. NASA and Boeing said this during Press conference on Friday. There are two astronauts on board. They will travel to the International Space Station, stay there for a few days and then return.
It is the first crewed test flight of the Starliner. The spacecraft has already made two test flights in the past, without people on board. The first manned test flight was usually supposed to take place last year, but due to fire safety issues and parachute suspension, it was postponed until this year.
Competition with SpaceX
After the test flight in May, the Starliner will be put into service to regularly transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. This will be the second commercial capsule used for this purpose. SpaceX's Dragon is the first. It has been used for this since 2020.
Starliner has come a long way. The program began in 2014. SpaceX and Boeing then received a budget from NASA to design capsules for flights to the International Space Station. The budget received by Boeing was Much larger Than NASA gave SpaceX. However, SpaceX quickly got Dragon up and running.
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