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This will be the third test flight for Starliner, and the first with astronauts on board.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA and Boeing plan to launch astronauts into space on Boeing’s Starliner capsule for the first time on Saturday after a series of issues continued to cause delays.
Liftoff is scheduled for 12:25 p.m. ET on June 1. The Starliner will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station, where they will stay for about a week, and then back to Earth.
An attempt in early May was scrapped after a pressure-relief valve in the Atlas V rocket’s upper stage opened and closed so quickly and so many times that it created a loud buzz.
This will be the third test flight for Starliner. Demos in 2019 and 2022 had no one aboard. Boeing had to repeat the empty flight because of software and other flaws the first time.
“We’re not going to fly until we’re sure we’re safe,” NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said..
Boeing’s Starliner capsule is already years late in transporting astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA.
NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to ferry astronauts to and from the space station after the shuttle program ended, paying the private companies billions of dollars. SpaceX has been in the orbital taxi business since 2020.
Starliner’s debut test flight without a crew in 2019 ended up in the wrong orbit and failed to reach the space station, forcing Boeing to repeat the demo before astronauts could fly. Following more reviews last year, the company had to fix the capsule’s parachutes and yank out a mile of flammable tape.
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