NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test Mission Overview

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will support NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test mission to the International Space Station. The duo will launch aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission serves as the final flight test for the Starliner spacecraft and will be its first mission with crew. The mission will also validate the transportation system, including the launch pad, rocket, spacecraft, in-orbit operational capabilities, and return to Earth with astronauts aboard. Following launch, Wilmore and Williams will spend about a week aboard the space station and then return to Earth, landing in the western United States.

Wilmore is the commander for the mission. A veteran of two spaceflights, Wilmore has spent 178 days in space. In 2009, he served as a pilot aboard space shuttle Atlantis for STS-129. He served as a flight engineer for Expedition 41 until November 2014, when he assumed command of the station upon arrival of the Expedition 42 crew. He returned to Earth the following March. Wilmore was selected by NASA in 2000 to become an astronaut. He is a graduate of the United States Test Pilot School and holds a both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville. He is a retired captain in the U.S. Navy.

Williams is the pilot for the mission. She has spent 322 days in space across two missions: Expedition 14/15 in 2006 through 2007, and Expedition 32/33 in 2012. The Massachusetts native has conducted seven spacewalks, totaling 50 hours and 40 minutes. Williams was selected by NASA in 1998 to become an astronaut. She is a retired captain in the U.S. Navy. She has a bachelor’s degree in Physical Science from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, and a master’s degree in Engineering Management from the Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne.

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