On Monday, 6 May, Boeing’s first spacecraft, the Starliner, will be headed to the International Space Station (ISS) for its first crewed test flight. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, commander, and Suni Williams, pilot, will launch aboard the Starliner on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is targeted for 10:34 pm EDT and the crew is set to dock at the space station on Wednesday, 8 May.
The Starliner previously docked to the ISS in 2022 and successfully landed back on Earth in an uncrewed mission. The crewed mission, first foreseen for the beginning of last year, was postponed to “no earlier than Friday, July 21st” 2023″, but is finally taking place next week.
1. Barry “Butch” E. Wilmore
Barry E. Wilmore is the commander of the mission, which will be his third aboard the International Space Station. He is from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, earned degrees from Tennessee Technological University and the University of Tennessee and retired as a captain in the US Navy.
Recruited as a NASA astronaut in 2000, he completed his first flight as pilot on STS-129 where he logged more than 259 hours (11 days) in space. From September to November 2014, he served as Flight Engineer aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 41 and then as commander of Expedition 42 from November 2014 to March 2015 totalling 167 days in space.
2. Sunita (Suni) L. Williams
Sunita L. Williams is the pilot of the mission, which will also be her third aboard the International Space Station. She is from Needham, Massachusetts and has a Bachelor in Physical Science from the US Naval Academy and a Master in Engineering Management from the Florida Institute of Technology.
Selected as an astronaut in 1998, she has spent a total of 322 days in space over the course of her two previous missions. Moreover, with 50 hours and 40 minutes, she is second on the list of total cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut.
Following a period of training and evaluation, Williams worked in Moscow with the Russian Space Agency on the Russian contribution to the space station and with the first Expedition Crew. Following the return of Expedition 1, Williams worked within the Robotics branch on the station’s Robotic Arm and the follow-on Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator. As a NEEMO2 crew member, she lived underwater in the Aquarius habitat for 9 days. After her first flight, she served as Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office. She then supported a long-duration mission as Flight Engineer for Expedition 32 and International Space Station Commander for Expedition 33.
