On Thursday, American astronauts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, set to participate in the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft next week. Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams are scheduled to launch on May 6 toward the International Space Station, as part of this test flight which comes after years of delays. The astronauts will stay at the station for about a week. In a press conference, Butch stated, “We are on the verge of expanding our agency's capability to access the space station, and that is very important.”
Since 2020, NASA has been transporting its astronauts to the International Space Station using SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. After a failed mission in 2019, Starliner successfully reached the ISS in May 2022 during an uncrewed mission. The spacecraft must pass a crewed test before it can begin operational flights. The two astronauts, who have previously visited the ISS, expressed their "full" confidence in the new spacecraft. The rocket that will carry the Starliner is an Atlas V, developed by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
