WASHINGTON — The first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is a step closer to launch after completing a major pre-launch review April 25.
NASA announced at an April 25 briefing that, at the completion of the two-day Flight Test Readiness Review, officials approved plans to proceed with the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, with a launch scheduled for 10:34 p.m. Eastern May 6 from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex (SLC) 41. Backup launch opportunities are available May 7, 10 and 11.
“I can say with confidence that the teams have absolutely done their due diligence,” said NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free. “There’s still a little bit of closeout work to do, but we are on track for a launch.”
That remaining work is what Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, described as “a couple standard things” for pre-launch preparations. They include replacing a valve in a liquid oxygen replenishment system at SLC-41 and performing additional analysis on a part of the parachute system that releases a cover called the forward heat shield so that the drogue and main parachutes can deploy. That additional analysis is being done “out of an abundance of caution,” he said.
The launch also depends on the readiness of the International Space Station. A cargo Dragon spacecraft, CRS-30, must undock from the station, after which the four members of the Crew-8 crew will board their Crew Dragon spacecraft and move it from the forward to the zenith port on the Harmony module. That will free up the forward port for Starliner, which is currently only approved for docking to that port.
The CRS-30 Dragon spacecraft was scheduled to undock from the ISS on April 26 but weather at splashdown locations has delayed its departure to at least April 28. Dana Weigel, NASA ISS program manager, said it was too early to say how much more the CRS-30 departure could be delayed without forcing a Starliner launch delay, but…
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