Starliner Astronauts Visit KSC To See Spacecraft They Will Soon Fly OnBy Mike Killian, on August 14th, 2018
The first crew who will fly Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner to space next year on ‘Crew Flight Test 1’ pose for a photo in front of their vehicle in Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF), as it is being processed for the mission. From left to right: NASA astronaut Eric Boe, Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson, and NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann – who will be making her first trip to space on the mission. Photo Credit: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace.comThe first astronauts for Boeing’s first crewed Starliner flights paid a visit to Kennedy Space Center in Florida last week, to meet with engineers and see the spacecraft they will actually fly on starting next year, and check out the progress in Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (or C3PF), which was formally an Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) and main engine shop for the space shuttle. (...)
Boeing, in partnership with Space Florida, has had a lease on the former shuttle hangar for some time, and has modernized the 50,000 square-foot facility to provide an environment for efficient production, testing, and operations of up to six Starliners at a time, similar to the company’s satellite, space launch vehicle, and commercial airplane production programs. (...)
The console for Starliner spacecraft 3, which will be used on the OFT mission and will then be turned around to fly the PCM-1 mission. Photo Credit: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace.comStarliner is designed to fly autonomously, so the astronauts will not need to fly the vehicle at all under normal circumstances, and will literally be along for the ride in all aspects of the flight. But even still, no pilot wants to give up complete control of their vehicle, so Boeing has made sure every critical system can be controlled with physical input that offers astronauts tactile feedback and instant visual confirmation of the current settings, should they ever have to take over manually.
NASA and Boeing are targeting mid-2019 for the CFT, pending how the un-crewed OFT goes. Starliners will launch atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V ‘422’ rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s launch complex 41, equipped with a dual-engine Centaur second stage and pushing over 1.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff from its RD-180 engine and two solid rocket boosters.
Ascent off Earth will reach Mach 1 at 74 seconds after liftoff, and put the crews under 3.5 Gs, reaching orbital velocity and spacecraft separation about 16 minutes after launch and cruising autonomously on a 6-8 hour flight to the ISS. (...)
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