Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, February 26 (Xinhua) Boeing's Starliner interstellar airliner is expected to carry the first astronauts into space in April.

Executives from NASA and Boeing recently outlined the company's work on the NASA commercial crew program.

"We don't have any major announcements, but we will share the progress," Steve Stitch, NASA's commercial crew program manager, said at the start of the conference call.

Currently, Stitch is joined by Jeff Aaron, NASA International Space Station (ISS) Program Systems Engineering and Integration Office Manager, and Mark Nappi, Boeing Vice President and CST-100 Starliner spacecraft Program Manager. The three met to introduce the latest developments in Starliner and provided a time frame for the spacecraft's upcoming manned flight test (CFT).

Starliner conducted an Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) without a crew in May 2022, but the spacecraft encountered orbital maneuver and attitude control (OMAC) thruster problems less than a week after docking with the International Space Station, although the mission is still considered successful (as previously reported by CTOnews.com).

Starliner launched an unmanned orbital flight test 2 on the Atlas V rocket on May 19, 2022. (photo Source: NASA) "We spent the whole summer learning all this, and within a time frame of about 10 months, we set a 4-month goal for the CFT task based on our previous work, the hardware problems we encountered, and the engineering products we needed, which is nearing completion," Mark Nappi said. "We have completed our design, we have tested the hardware, and the analysis has been completed."

Nappi added that it was time to "wrap it all up and make sure we (Boeing) do what we say."

"Today, we are more confident about the mitigation measures taken by the purification system and connector seals so that we do not let that moisture into the valve, but we still have a 60-day (window) guide," Nappi said.

When Starliner is actually launched, it will take NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station for a two-week stay before returning to Earth to land in White Sands, New Mexico.

Assuming that all mission objectives can be successfully accomplished, NASA can formally certify that Starliner is certified for manned flight and have it take turns with SpaceX's Crew Dragon to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

According to Nappi, Boeing is "making the progress we need to prepare for crew rotation in the winter of 2024." Boeing estimates that once rotation begins, the Starliner will need to fly once a year.

Expanded reading: "Boeing interstellar airliner Starliner successfully returned to Earth, follow-up can carry out official manned mission"

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