SatNews

Flight Readiness Successfully Concludes For Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2

NASA and Boeing are proceeding with plans for the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) to the International Space Station following a full day of briefings and discussions during a Flight Readiness Review that took place at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Artistic rendition of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner — the next-generation space capsule that will take people to, and from, Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Launch of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is scheduled for 6:54 p.m. EDT, Thursday, May 19, from Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

OFT-2 will test the end-to-end capabilities of Starliner from launch to docking, atmospheric re-entry and a desert landing in the western United States. OFT-2 will provide valuable data that will help NASA certify Boeing’s crew transportation system to carry astronauts to and from the space station.

NASA and Boeing managers take part in the Flight Readiness Review for NASA’s Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) inside the Operations Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, May 11, 2022. Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft will launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:54 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 19. The uncrewed flight test will be Starliner’s second flight for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. (Photo: NASA/Amber Jean Notvest)