NASA and Boeing provide status update on first crewed flight test of CST-100 Starliner spacecraft

On Friday, February 17, NASA and Boeing provided a status update on the first crewed flight test of the latter's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station, which is scheduled to launch in April 2023.

The Crew Flight Test (CFT) will carry two NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams on CST-100 Starliner, mounted on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program.

The crew will return approximately eight days later in White Sands, New Mexico. The flight is the final test before sending regular crewed missions to the space station on the next-generation system.

Following a successful crewed test flight, NASA will begin the final process of certifying the Starliner spacecraft and systems for regular crew rotation flights to the microgravity laboratory.

LIVE: We're sharing mission updates and discussing upcoming milestones for NASA's @Boeing Crew Flight Test mission. #Starliner is scheduled to launch to the @Space_Station no earlier than this April.Listen in: https://t.co/RecDahzor6

— NASA (@NASA) February 17, 2023

In parallel, NASA is gearing up for the launch of the SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon Endurance spacecraft atop, will lift off from the agency's Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A in Florida on Sunday, Feb. 26, carrying two NASA astronauts - Mission Commander Stephen Bowen and Pilot Warren Hoburg - as well as UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

The SpaceX Crew-6 mission is the sixth crew rotation mission using the company's Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket to the space station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. The spacecraft will dock to the space-facing port of the station's Harmony module at 2:54 a.m., Monday, Feb. 27.