Starliner First Crew Launch On Track for April

Boeing and NASA are preparing for the first crewed flight of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner which is on track to launch NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station in mid to late April for an 8 day test mission.

The mission, following a successful uncrewed flight to the station last May, is the final major test of the vehicle before NASA certifies it for use on ISS crew rotation missions.

Starliner will launch atop a ULA Atlas V rocket from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and will return landing at White Sands in New Mexico.

During an update with reporters, NASA's Commercial Crew Program Manager shared that NASA and Boeing teams have completed about 80% of the work needed for the mission and that the next major milestone is the decision to fuel the Starliner spacecraft, which Boeing wants to do within 60 days of launch (likely in early March).

ISS Docking Port Availability Limited

Starliner's CFT mission fits into an incredibly busy schedule for the two docking ports that can support commercial crew vehicles. SpaceX’s Crew 6 is scheduled to launch Feb 26, arriving at the ISS a day later; then a week later Crew 5 will undock around March 5. That docking port will then be used by a SpaceX Cargo Dragon mission that will arrive around March 12 and depart a month later, clearing the way for the Starliner CFT mission.

“We’ll have to watch weather delays and things like that to see where we end up relative to having a window to go launch CFT....There’s a swim lane that we’re going to watch very carefully relative to the traffic” at the International Space Station - Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program Manager

ULA Launch Pad Availability Limited

ULA is preparing for the inaugural launch of their Vulcan Centaur rocket which uses the same launch pad.

“We’ve been in very close contact with them....we still feel that the mid April to late April time slot is good for us. It balances with the ULA priorities.”- Mark Nappi, Boeing Vice President & Program Manager for Starliner

Nappi confirmed there would need to be further discussions with ULA if the CFT launch slipped beyond early May.