NASA to Host a Pair of Briefings for Starliner Crew Flight

News provided by

Apr 16, 2024, 17:55 ET

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA will host two media opportunities on Thursday, April 25, in preparation for the agency's Boeing Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station. The mission is targeting launch at 10:34 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 6, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will lift off aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and dock at the orbiting laboratory, where they will stay for about a week.

NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams prepare for their mission in the company’s Starliner spacecraft simulator at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Credits: NASA/Robert Markowitz

As part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program, the mission is the first crewed flight for the Starliner spacecraft. The mission will test the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system, including launch, docking, and return to Earth in the western United States. Following a successful crewed flight test, NASA will begin the final process of certifying Starliner and systems for crewed missions to the space station.

The deadline for media accreditation for in-person coverage of this launch has passed. The agency's media credentialing policy is available online. For questions about media accreditation, please email: [email protected].

NASA's coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):

Thursday, April 25
1 p.m.: Crew arrival media event at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the following participants:

Janet Petro, director, NASA Kennedy
Dana Hutcherson, deputy program manager, NASA's Commercial Crew Program
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore
NASA astronaut Suni Williams

Crew arrival will air live on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency's website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media. Questions are limited to in-person media only. Follow Commercial Crew and Kennedy Space Center for the latest arrival updates.

6 p.m.: Flight Test Readiness Review media teleconference (no less than one hour following completion of the readiness review), with the following participants:

Jim Free, NASA associate administrator
Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate
Steve Stich, manager, NASA's Commercial Crew Program
Dana Weigel, manager, NASA's International Space Station Program
Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, Boeing Commercial Crew Program

Media may participate via phone only. For the dial-in number and passcode, please contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than 4 p.m. on April 25, at: [email protected].

NASA's Commercial Crew Program has delivered on its goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the United States through a partnership with American private industry. This partnership is changing the arc of human spaceflight history by opening access to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station to more people, more science, and more commercial opportunities. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in space exploration, including future missions to the Moon and, eventually, to Mars.

For NASA's launch blog and more information about the mission, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

SOURCE NASA