NASA astronauts land in Florida for upcoming Boeing Starliner launch: 'Rubber meets the road'
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - History is on the horizon after a 10-year journey for NASA and Boeing.
Boeing’s highly anticipated and highly delayed Starliner spacecraft is just two weeks away from launch.
Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore arrived at the Space Coast on Thursday afternoon for a media event at Kennedy Space Center. The two said they felt confident about the upcoming flight and trusted NASA and Boeing with the mission. Both are former Navy pilots who flew themselves to Florida in T-38 jets from Texas, which was their last stop before liftoff.
"This is where the rubber meets the road where we are going to leave this planet, and that is pretty darn cool," said Suni Williams.
Williams and Wilmore will oversee Starliner during the week-long crewed certification test flight to the International Space Station.
"We love Florida. We love Kennedy Space Center because this is where you launch humans into space," added Butch Wilmore.
The goal is to ensure Starliner can safely take humans from Earth to space and back.
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"This is a huge moment for our nation. With Starliner launching crew, NASA will have two unique human transportation systems to Earth orbit," said Dana Hutcherson, the deputy program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Getting to orbit hasn’t been easy for Boeing. SpaceX and Boeing got contracts with NASA to launch humans 10 years ago, in 2014. Since then, only SpaceX has met the mark.
Boeing fell way behind as Starliner faced several setbacks with onboard parachutes and wiring that could have put astronauts in danger.
"We’ve had a few delays because we weren’t ready," added Wilmore.
Now, the spacecraft, astronauts, and engineers say they're ready for whatever lies ahead.
"One thing Butch and I are really good at is rightly tighty, lefty loosey," said Williams. "We’re ready to do any type of maintenance on the space station, and they’ve checked us off for that."
With the Atlas 5 rocket, Starliner spacecraft, and both astronauts now in Florida, the countdown is on for liftoff on Monday, May 6 at 10:34 p.m.