Astronauts prepare for their first launch

After years of delays, Boeing is finally preparing to launch two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard its Starliner spacecraft.

The capsule is scheduled to lift off on Monday at 10:34 p.m. ET, atop an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams will pilot the Starliner vehicle on its inaugural crewed flight — a crucial final test before NASA can allow Boeing to conduct routine flights to and from the space station for the agency.

The stakes are high. This will be Boeing’s first launch with humans aboard its spaceship, and comes after years of delays, technical setbacks and major budget overruns. If successful, the flight would enable Boeing to challenge the dominance held by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has been ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the orbital outpost since 2020.

The two companies’ spacecraft were developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which was created after the retirement of its Space Shuttle fleet in 2011. The goal: to catalyze and help fund the creation of new commercially built vehicles capable of flying to and from low Earth orbit.

In a pre-flight press conference last week, Wilmore said safety was paramount and that previous Starliner launch attempts — both unmanned and manned — had been delayed because the capsule simply wasn’t ready yet.

“Why do we think it’s as safe as it can be? We wouldn’t be standing here if we didn’t do this,” Wilmore told reporters.

However, there are still risks inherent in any new spacecraft or rocket.

“Do we expect things to go perfectly? This is the first human spacecraft flight,” Wilmore said. “I’m sure we’ll figure things out. That’s why we do this. “This is a test flight.”

The plan is for the astronauts to dock at the space station the next day Spend about a week there before returning to Earth and landing at Starliner’s main landing site at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

While NASA astronauts have been flying for years on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, the agency doesn’t want to rely on one company, said McKenna Young, an aerospace security project fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

“Having that second option is really important because it adds redundancy and flexibility,” Young said. “In space systems, there are always redundancies, because if something goes wrong, you want to make sure you have backups.”

Boeing’s journey to this first manned flight was turbulent. In 2019, the Starliner’s first uncrewed debut was cut short after software glitches prevented the capsule from attempting to dock with the space station. Subsequent fuel valve problems caused several delays before Boeing was able to successfully demonstrate in 2022 that the Starliner could dock with the International Space Station and return to Earth.

Earlier this year, Boeing’s aviation division came under fire after a panel exploded mid-flight on one of its 737 MAX 9 planes. Young said this major incident has heightened scrutiny of the entire company and likely increased the risks for For the next Starliner flight.

“A successful launch will serve as a very important reminder [Boeing’s] Capabilities said. “They will be able to show that they are reliable operators, able to complete difficult tasks and can continue to innovate.”

Young added that the challenges Boeing faced in getting the Starliner vehicle to this point show how difficult human spaceflight is.

“I think we forget because we’ve been doing this for decades, but space is still a very challenging environment,” she said. “It’s actually very difficult to get off the ground successfully.”

Williams said she and Wilmore have confidence in the Starliner program and their upcoming mission.

“We feel very safe and very comfortable when this spacecraft is flying,” Williams told reporters earlier this week. “This is where we’re supposed to be.”