Boeing Starliner to Make 1st Crewed Flight to Space Station in April - NASA Officials

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th February, 2023) US space program planners are now scheduling Boeing's long-delayed CST-100 Starliner crew-carrying vehicle to make its first test flights in the second half of April, NASA executives told a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday.

"The window (to launch the) Crew Flight Test (CFT) is the middle of April to the end of April," NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said. "We will have a decision in early March on how we proceed towards launch.

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The Starliner was currently going through its scheduled evaluation to prepare for the flight, Stich said.

"This is the final piece of the puzzle that the vehicle is ready to fly and become human-rated," Stich added.

The mission will carry an astronaut crew of test pilots Barry "Butch" Williams and Suni Williams to the International Space Station to prove the end-to-end capabilities of the spacecraft, according to NASA.