NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams leave the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a mission dress rehearsal on Friday, April 26, 2024. As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Wilmore and Williams will be the first to go to the International Space Station on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The rocket will launch from Space Launch Complex-41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:34 p.m. ET on Monday, May 6. Credit: NASA/Frank Micheaux
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are getting ready for a historic journey on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams answered questions from the media on May 1, from inside the Astronaut Crew Quarters at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida before their launch to the space station.
Wilmore said, “We’ve been through training and we know all the procedures for this spacecraft. We’re fully trained in all aspects of Starliner.”
Isolation at Kennedy Space Center
Wilmore and Williams have been in isolation inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building since they arrived at the Florida spaceport on April 25.
The Operations and Checkout Building has been used since the Apollo program and the Space Shuttle Program. The crew quarters, located on the third floor, has 23 bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. The area also includes the suitup room, where teams help astronauts into their spacesuits before they leave the building and get into a vehicle to take them to the launch pad.
An artist’s drawing of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft in orbit. Credit: Boeing
First Journey on Starliner
Wilmore and Williams will be the first to travel on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, launching on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to the International Space Station. The astronauts 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.
Williams said, “We feel very safe and very comfortable when this spacecraft flies. This is where we’re supposed to be.”
Starliner Certification and Features
After successfully completing the mission, NASA will start certifying Starliner and its systems for crewed rotation missions to the space station. The Starliner capsule, with a diameter of 15 feet (4.56m) and the ability to steer automatically or manually, will carry four astronauts, or a mix of crew and cargo, for NASA missions to low Earth orbit.
The launch is planned for 10:34 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 6, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
