Atlas V rocket is set to lift off with a team of two veteran astronauts — Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams — sitting inside a crew capsule called Starliner, built by Boeing, on the capsule’s third test flight and the first with astronauts on board.
The astronauts will be set for the International Space Station (ISS) in low-earth orbit.
If the mission succeeds, the U.S. will for the first time in its history have two spacecraft to launch astronauts to space
Boeing Starliner
Starliner is a spacecraft that transports astronauts in space, after being launched there by a rocket.
It consists of a crew capsule and a service module.
The crew capsule houses the astronauts; like others of its kind, it will be able to survive reentry and return to the ground.
The service module consists of the equipment and systems the astronauts need to survive in space, including air and temperature control, water supply, sanitation, etc., plus the engines and fuel required to manoeuvre the spacecraft.
The service module won’t be reusable
Starliner is more than 4 m wide and can house up to seven astronauts.
It can be fit atop an Atlas V rocket, operated by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Starliner’s purpose
Since being awarded the NASA contracts, SpaceX has flown 13 missions to the ISS onboard its Dragon crew capsule (which can also house seven astronauts).
Assuming Starliner’s crewed test flight is successful, SpaceX and Boeing will take turns launching astronauts to the ISS — each crew’s expedition lasts up to six months — until the ISS is decommissioned next decade.
After NASA shut its Space Shuttle programme in 2011 and before SpaceX’s Dragon capsule got ready in 2020, only Russia’s Soyuz rockets could ferry astronauts to and from the ISS.
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