Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is 'go' for May 6 astronaut launch
Over the past two days, NASA and Boeing held a flight readiness review (FRR) for the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission
which will send agency astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to and from the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule.
While the asteroid-bound spacecraft doesn’t rely on optical communications to send data
The FRR found no serious issues, meaning CFT is go for launch on May 6 as previously planned, NASA announced today (April 25).
I can say with confidence that the teams have absolutely done their due diligence,
NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said during a call with reporters this afternoon
"There's still a little bit of closeout work to do, but we are on track for launch at 10:34 [p.m.] Eastern Daylight Time on Monday, May 6."
Starliner will lift off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
This represents a significant milestone for the project by showing how optical communications can interface with a spacecraft’s radio frequency comms system.”