[NASA HQ News] NASA, Boeing Provide Next Update on Space Station Crew Flight Test

[NASA News Releases <hqnews@newsletters.nasa.gov>]

July 8, 2024

 

MEDIA ADVISORY: M24-093

 

NASA, Boeing Provide Next Update on Space Station Crew Flight Test

 

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard, approaches the International Space Station for an autonomous docking as it orbited 257 miles above the South Pacific Ocean.

 

Leadership from NASA and Boeing will participate in a media briefing at 12:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, July 10, to discuss the agency’s Crew Flight Test at the International Space Station.

 

Audio of the media teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website:

 

https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

 

Participants include:

 

• Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
• Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, Commercial Crew Program, Boeing

 

Media interested in participating must contact the newsroom at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no later than one hour prior to the start of the call at ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.

NASA and Boeing continue to evaluate Starliner’s propulsion system performance and five small helium leaks in the spacecraft’s service module, gathering as much data as possible while docked to the International Space Station. Once all the necessary ground testing and associated data analysis is complete, leaders from NASA and Boeing will conduct an agency-level review before returning from the orbiting complex.

As part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams lifted off on June 5, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on an end-to-end test of the Starliner system. The crew docked to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module on June 6.

Since their arrival on June 6, Wilmore and Williams have completed half of all hands-on research time conducted aboard the space station, allowing their crewmates to prepare for the departure of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft. NASA also will hold an Earth to space news conference at 11 a.m., Wednesday, July 10, with the Crew Flight Test astronauts to discuss the mission.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is delivering 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 opening access to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station to more people, science, and commercial opportunities. The space station remains the springboard to NASA’s next great leap in space exploration, including future missions to the Moon under Artemis, and ultimately, to Mars.

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

 

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

 

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