Next week marks a significant milestone in space exploration as astronauts prepare to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for the first time in over 50 years.
The upcoming launch will see the Boeing Starliner spacecraft atop an Atlas V rocket departing from Cape Canaveral, marking the return of human spaceflight from this historic site after a hiatus of nearly 56 years.
The last instance of humans being launched into space from the Cape occurred during the Apollo 7 mission in 1968.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, designated for Boeing’s inaugural human spaceflight, arrived at the launch site just over a week before their scheduled liftoff on May 6.
Having flown from Houston to Kennedy Space Center on April 25, Wilmore and Williams will serve as test pilots for Boeing’s Starliner capsule, which is embarking on its maiden crewed mission following years of delays.
The Starliner, riding atop an Atlas rocket, is slated to embark on a weeklong shakedown cruise to the International Space Station. Boeing aims to catch up with SpaceX, which has been conducting astronaut launches for NASA since 2020.
Boeing’s previous two Starliner test flights were unmanned. The first attempt in 2019 failed to reach the space station due to software and other technical issues. A repeat of the demonstration was conducted in 2022. More recently, the capsule faced challenges with parachute deployment and the removal of flammable tape.
Wilmore emphasized the experimental nature of the upcoming flight, acknowledging the likelihood of unexpected discoveries.
“As this is the first human flight of the spacecraft, do we expect it to go perfectly? I’m sure we’ll find things out. That’s why we do this,” Wilmore told reporters.
NASA awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing a decade ago, investing billions of dollars to enable commercial transportation of astronauts to and from the space station. Despite plans for the space station’s eventual decommissioning by 2030, NASA remains committed to maintaining two operational crew capsules.
“This is vitally important,” noted Wilmore.
For Wilmore and Williams, the upcoming launch will mark the first time astronauts have ascended to space aboard an Atlas rocket since NASA’s Project Mercury in the early 1960s.
