Starliner

Meet Starliner, Boeing’s crew capsule for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Boeing is one of two companies building commercial human space capsules for NASA and will be the second of the two to start flying humans.

Starliner could carry a crew of seven to and from the International Space Station for missions that could last six months. Boeing says it will be available for private astronaut missions to the ISS or completely private free-flying orbital missions.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, commander, and Suni Williams, pilot, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will launch from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The Starliner spacecraft, named Calypso, can fly autonomously or be steered manually and is expected to rendezvous and dock with the space station on Wednesday, May 8. Wilmore and Williams will spend about a week at the orbiting laboratory before the crew capsule makes a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern United States.

Tech Specs

Launch mass: 13000 kg

Crew capacity: Up to 7

Diameter: 4.56 m (15.0 ft)

Length: 5.03 m (16.5 ft)

Design life: 60 hours (free flight). 210 days (docked)

Flight Heritage

First Flight

A Starliner flew for the first time on December 20, 2019, on the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test (OFT) mission for NASA.

Immediately after launch, a series of critical issues plagued Starliner and nearly resulted in the loss of the ship. Barely able to get to orbit, the week-long flight was aborted.

Starliner landed, not without further critical issues, at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on December 22.

An investigation showed a lack of necessary software testing on Boeing’s part as well as critical oversight failures on NASA’s end. Both organizations have corrected and extensively tested the software on Starliner.

Second Flight

Starliner flew on May 19, 2022, on the second uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) mission for NASA.

Starliner successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on May 21, 2022. After 4 days, the Boeing spacecraft undocked from the space station. About four hours after departing, it successfully deployed its three main parachutes and six airbags. It then touched down onto its airbags, wrapping up the six-day journey, which tested the end-to-end capabilities of the crew-capable spacecraft.

Upcoming First Crew Flight

This upcoming mission will mark the second flight for this Starliner spacecraft, following its inaugural mission in December 2019, Orbital Flight Test-1 (OFT-1). Upon its successful return, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams named the spacecraft "Calypso".

Pilot: Sunita L. Williams.

Spacecraft Commander: Butch Wilmore.

Courtesy of NASA

A ULA Atlas V rocket will send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Boeing Company’s CST-100 Starliner capsule. The Starliner will launch on the Atlas V from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, on Florida’s Space Coast.

Tech Specs

Height: 58.3 m (191 ft) with payload fairing, 52.4 m (172 ft) with Starliner

Diameter: 3.81 m (12.5 ft)

Mass: 590,000 kg (1,300,000 lb)

Stages: 2

Dual Engine Centaur: For CST-100 Starliner missions, the Centaur upper stage will fly with two RL10A-4-2 engines, offering more thrust to accommodate the Starliner. It also helps shape the ascent trajectory to the Space Station.

Launch Vehicle Adapter (LVA) and Aeroskirt: The launch vehicle adapter (LVA) provides the structural attachment of the Starliner capsule to the Atlas V rocket. The LVA uses a truss structure and metallic ring to attach the spacecraft to the Centaur upper stage. ULA also designed a 70-inch-long aeroskirt to extend the Starliner aerodynamic surface, which enhances the aerodynamic characteristics, stability, and loads of the Atlas V for the unique crewed configuration.

Emergency Detection System (EDS): This system monitors various launch vehicle parameters to determine the health of the rocket, and provides a capability to take action by signaling an abort command so the Starliner can escape if necessary.

The workhorse Atlas V rocket from ULA is the launch vehicle of choice for the Starliner crew capsule.

For this role, Atlas V flies in a unique configuration with no payload fairing and a special aeroskirt at the base of Starliner.

This variant is called the N22 because the rocket has no payload fairings "N," two solid rocket motors "2," and two engines on its Centaur upper stage "2".

A dual-engine Centaur upper stage has so far only been used on the Atlas V for Starliner missions while dual-engine Centaur stages flew more than 160 times on previous versions of the Atlas.

When launching Starliner, Atlas V does not climb quickly out of Earth's atmosphere but instead flies much lower than usual.

This is done to make sure Starliner and its future crews can safely abort away from the Atlas V at any point during launch.

Photo: ULA

Space Launch Complex-41 is the east-coast home of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket.

The pad hosted its first launch on December 21st, 1965 and is currently being upgraded to serve ULA's Vulcan rocket no earlier than 2022.

Vulcan and Atlas V will share the pad for several years before the Atlas is retired.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, SLC-41 was used for the U.S. Air Force’s Titan III and Titan IV rockets.

It has been the launch site of many notable missions:

• the Helios probes to study the Sun
• the Viking missions to Mars
• the Voyager interstellar probes
• the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
• New Horizon to Pluto and Kuiper Belt
• Juno to Jupiter.

The pad will soon start launching humans on Boeing's Starliner capsule beginning no earlier than 2024.

Located on Florida’s east coast, Cape Canaveral is ideally located to allow access to a wide variety of space destinations that can be reached while safely launching over the open Atlantic Ocean so as not to endanger anyone on the ground.

The Cape currently supports the launch of four different rocket families: Atlas V, Delta IV, Falcon 9, and Minotaur.

Launches of Vulcan from ULA and New Glenn from Blue Origin are set to begin no earlier than 2024 with current schedules.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which occupies neighboring Merritt Island, and Cape Canaveral are often confused with each other or referred to as a single place.

They are in fact separate government installations but united as a single “Eastern Range” for launch operations.

Over its history, the spaceport has held the following names:

• Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (1949-1963)
• Cape Kennedy Air Force Station (1963-1973)
• Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (1973-2020)
• Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (2020-present)

Credit: ULA