Boeing and NASA officials announced today (May 3) that the new Starliner spacecraft is “prepared” for its first astronaut launch on Monday, May 6. Barring bad weather or last-minute technical issues, Starliner was cleared to send two senior NASA astronauts and former U.S. Navy test pilots to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission, known as Crew Flight Test (CFT), will feature Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Pilot Suni Williams.

The pair are wrapping up last-minute training and quarantine at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center ahead of their historic launch from the Space Launch complex on the nose at 22:34 on Monday (02:34 GMT on Tuesday, May 7). . Canaveral Space Force Station. The broadcast will be broadcast live here on Space.com via NASA Television.

“We did a launch readiness check and everyone selected ‘go’ to proceed,” Steve Stich, head of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said at a press conference today. said.

CFT will not only be the first time a Boeing Starliner carries astronauts, but it will also be the first time a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket will do so. The launch of the multilayer rocket will take place tomorrow (May 4).

Pending the success of CFT, Boeing will join SpaceX to send six-month crewed operational missions to the ISS. Both companies received commercial crew contracts from NASA in 2014; At the time, Boeing was valued at $4.2 billion and SpaceX was valued at $2.6 billion.

Since then, SpaceX has launched 12 crewed missions to the ISS, including a test flight in 2020; The first manned Starliner trial was postponed due to various problems. Boeing’s first unmanned aircraft to the ISS, launched in December 2019, could not reach its target due to technical problems. The pandemic and the need to resolve the problems experienced on the first flight postponed the second unmanned Starliner test flight to May 2022. This attempt was successful, reaching the ISS and accomplishing all other important missions.

CFT was then scheduled to launch in 2023; until more critical problems were discovered, such as problems with the capsule’s main parachutes and problems with the flammable tapes in the capsule’s cables. Everyone emphasized that these issues were behind the team and that CFT was ready to go. If this first astronaut flight is successful, Starliner’s first crewed operational mission is expected to occur in 2025.

Last week, NASA and Boeing teams conducted flight readiness testing for CFT. This analysis revealed two issues that required further attention: a valve on the launch pad needed to be replaced, and engineers wanted to continue working on contingency scenarios for jettisoning the Starliner’s forward heat shield during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.