Boeing’s Starliner ready to launch first manned flight into space on Saturday

Boeing’s Starliner program is expected to launch its first crewed mission into space this coming weekend after previous technical problems delayed liftoff.

Both NASA and Boeing have approved the main test flight, which will take place on Saturday at 12:25 pm local time at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The first test flight, which will carry two NASA astronauts, aims to reach the International Space Station (ISS).

The spacecraft, carrying astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams, will travel atop the Atlas V, a rocket built by United Launch Alliance (ULA). A successful flight into orbit would show that the program can take astronauts to the ISS and back home. Boeing would be authorized by NASA to carry out regular trips.

The program encountered problems and had to postpone flights this month.

The flight was scheduled to take off on May 6th. It was canceled because of a valve problem, a technical problem that further delayed the historic takeoff. Another attempt, scheduled for May 17, was postponed due to a propellant leak and the need for more testing.

Boeing he said Wednesday, backup launch opportunities are available on Sunday, with a few more on June 5th and 6th.

Mission controllers said last week that the valve had been replaced, but the helium leak would not be resolved before scheduled liftoff.

“We can address this particular leak if the leak rate grows up to 100 times,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. according to for Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Both Wilmore and Williams were quarantined in Houston while technical issues were being resolved. They returned to Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday and will quarantine in the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building until launch on Saturday, according to Boeing.

If the flight goes as planned, the crew will spend a week on the ISS before returning to Earth.

Boeing has been developing the Starliner program for more than a decade, hoping to give NASA another option for sending astronauts to the ISS. With the mission completed, Boeing will seek to compete more with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has been transporting astronauts to the ISS since 2020.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story