Live

Boeing Starliner 1st astronaut flight: Live updates

News
By Elizabeth Howell, Tariq Malik
published
A Boeing Starliner is stacked atop its Atlas V rocket ahead of its first astronaut flight for NASA at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
(Image: © ULA)

Boeing will launch its first-ever Starliner astronaut mission for NASA as early as May 6, 2024 on a critical test flight to show its commercial space capsule is ready to ferry crews to and from the International Space Station. 

The so-called Starliner Crew Flight Test will launch on a weeklong mission to the ISS from Space Launch Complex 41 of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on May 6. Liftoff is set for 10:34 p.m. EDT (0234 May 7 GMT), with landing set for a week later in the southwestern U.S. Follow our live updates of the Boeing Crew Flight Test mission here from launch to landing!

All about Boeing Starliner | Boeing | Latest Boeing news

Refresh

Boeing Starliner astronauts 1 week away from launch

Butch Wilmore, commander for Crew Flight Test, outside the Boeing Starliner spacecraft during a dress rehearsal on April 26, 2024. The scorch mark on the side of the spacecraft is a harmless souvenir from re-entry during an uncrewed mission known as Orbital Flight Test, in 2019. (Image credit: Mike Fincke/NASA/X)

NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams finished a big dress rehearsal for their Boeing Starliner mission on Friday (April 26) near their launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Their quarantined training continues for a scheduled May 6 liftoff to the International Space Station, one week from today.

Williams and Wilmore also recently performed a video tour of one of their simulators, called the Boeing Mission Trainer, to demonstrate procedures for launch and landing. The simulator is housed at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Their mission, Crew Flight Test, passed its latest flight readiness review on Thursday (April 25), although as with all launches, safety and weather checks will continue all the way through the time it lifts off. The mission is expected to last about a week to certify future half-year operational excursions, starting with Starliner-1 in 2025.

Read more: Boeing Starliner astronauts conduct dress rehearsal ahead of May 6 launch (photos, video)

1st Starliner astronauts finish dress rehearsal before May 6 launch

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams finished a big dress rehearsal before their historic launch upon Boeing Starliner no earlier than May 6, agency officials said Friday (April 26) hours after the rehearsal finished.

"Wilmore and Williams completed a series of launch day milestones including suiting up, working in a flight deck simulator, and operating the same software that will be used during the launch," NASA officials wrote in a blog post on Friday (April 26).

The rehearsal took place at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, Florida and included a countdown procedure with the Starliner spacecraft, which is on top of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket that will carry it to the International Space Station (ISS).

The one-week Crew Flight Test passed its latest flight readiness review with NASA on Thursday (April 25). CFT, the first Starliner mission with astronauts, aims to certify the spacecraft for six-month missions to the ISS that may start as soon as 2025. Read more about Starliner being "go for launch" here at Space.com.

Starliner astronauts arrive at launch site

Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore (left) and Suni Williams, both of NASA, arrive at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida April 25 in a T-38 jet ahead of their launch. (Image credit: NASA)

The two NASA astronauts who will fly on Boeing's first crewed Starliner spacecraft have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to prepare for their historic launch to the International Space Station on May 6. 

Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams landed their NASA T-38 supersonic jet at the space center's Launch and Landing Facility after a short flight from Houston's Ellington Field near the Johnson Space Center. 

The astronauts will launch to the ISS on Boeing's Starliner and an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station near KSC. Their  one-week mission to the ISS is a final shakedown cruise for Boeing's Starliner to prove it is ready for operational NASA crew flights. At the end of the mission, Starliner will parachute to Earth and make a land-based landing in the southwestern United States.