Two NASA astronauts will soon make history as the first to launch into space aboard a Boeing spaceship.Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 6, representing the first Crew Flight Test, or CFT, of Boeing’s Starliner capsule.The mission will see Starliner launch atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:34 p.m. EST on May 6 (0234 GMT May 7).The pair will spend ten days in space on the orbiting lab before the crewed Starliner capsule returns to Earth, making a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern United States. If all goes according to plan, this first crew flight test will set the stage for using the Starliner capsule — which can carry four astronauts or a mix of crew and cargo — for crew rotation missions to the space station.Related: Boeing Starliner 1st astronaut flight: Live updatesMost recently, the astronauts completed a full launch-day dress rehearsal on Friday (April 26), according to a statement from NASA. They will now spend the next week working on last-minute preparations and training exercises.Both Wilmore and Williams are veteran astronauts, having flown on two prior space missions to the space station. You can learn more about each of them below.Barry “Butch” Wilmore an astronaut poses for a portrait in a blue flight suitBarry Wilmore, also known as Butch, will serve as the commander of Boeing’s first Starliner CFT. Wilmore is a 61-year-old U.S. Navy Captain who joined NASA as an astronaut candidate in 2000. He has accumulated a total of 178 days in space and logged 5 hours and 36 minutes of time in four spacewalks.Wilmore hails from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, where his parents still live today. He is married to the former Deanna Newport, with whom he shares two daughters, according to his biography from NASA. Wilmore has a Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University. He also has a Master of Science degree in Aviation Systems from the University of Tennessee and is a graduate of the United States Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS) with over 8,000 flight hours and 663 carrier landings in tactical jet aircraft.During his tenure as a fleet Naval officer and aviator, Wilmore completed four operational deployments, flying the A-7E and F/A-18 aircraft from the decks of the USS Forrestal, USS Kennedy, USS Enterprise and the USS Eisenhower aircraft carriers, according to his biograp …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnTwo NASA astronauts will soon make history as the first to launch into space aboard a Boeing spaceship.Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 6, representing the first Crew Flight Test, or CFT, of Boeing’s Starliner capsule.The mission will see Starliner launch atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:34 p.m. EST on May 6 (0234 GMT May 7).The pair will spend ten days in space on the orbiting lab before the crewed Starliner capsule returns to Earth, making a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern United States. If all goes according to plan, this first crew flight test will set the stage for using the Starliner capsule — which can carry four astronauts or a mix of crew and cargo — for crew rotation missions to the space station.Related: Boeing Starliner 1st astronaut flight: Live updatesMost recently, the astronauts completed a full launch-day dress rehearsal on Friday (April 26), according to a statement from NASA. They will now spend the next week working on last-minute preparations and training exercises.Both Wilmore and Williams are veteran astronauts, having flown on two prior space missions to the space station. You can learn more about each of them below.Barry “Butch” Wilmore an astronaut poses for a portrait in a blue flight suitBarry Wilmore, also known as Butch, will serve as the commander of Boeing’s first Starliner CFT. Wilmore is a 61-year-old U.S. Navy Captain who joined NASA as an astronaut candidate in 2000. He has accumulated a total of 178 days in space and logged 5 hours and 36 minutes of time in four spacewalks.Wilmore hails from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, where his parents still live today. He is married to the former Deanna Newport, with whom he shares two daughters, according to his biography from NASA. Wilmore has a Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University. He also has a Master of Science degree in Aviation Systems from the University of Tennessee and is a graduate of the United States Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS) with over 8,000 flight hours and 663 carrier landings in tactical jet aircraft.During his tenure as a fleet Naval officer and aviator, Wilmore completed four operational deployments, flying the A-7E and F/A-18 aircraft from the decks of the USS Forrestal, USS Kennedy, USS Enterprise and the USS Eisenhower aircraft carriers, according to his biograp …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
