NASA and Boeing now are focusing on March 29 for the launch of Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station as a component of the organization’s Commercial Crew Program. Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is a basic formative achievement on the company’s way toward flying team missions for NASA.

For the OFT-2 mission, the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft will dispatch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, dock to the International Space Station, and return to land in the western United States about seven days after the fact as a feature of a end-to-end test to demonstrate the framework is prepared to fly group.

“Boeing is making solid progress on the path to flying a second uncrewed test mission and preparing for the company’s Crew Flight Test in 2021,” said Kathy Lueders, partner executive of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. “Our teams are focused on applying the lessons learned, and it won’t be long until we see Starliner visiting its destination – the International Space Station.”

The OFT-2 Starliner rocket is approaching last get together inside the organization’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The vehicle’s reusable group module has been fueled up and last checkouts of the flight, force and impetus frameworks are approaching finishing.

The spacecraft’s parachutes, arrival airbags, base heat shield, and its back shells are installed signifying the completion of the vehicle construct stage. In the coming weeks, groups will stack the team module with payload, including Rosie the Rocketeer, and gauge the vehicle prior to mating it to its administration module, which is now finished.

In equal, Boeing experts keep on refurbish the group module flown on Starliner’s first Orbital Flight Test while likewise assembling a pristine assistance module for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT), which is currently focusing on dispatch in summer 2021, following an effective OFT-2 mission.

NASA space travelers Barry “Butch” Wilmore, Mike Fincke, and Nicole Mann keep on preparing for CFT, the debut maintained trip of the Starliner rocket. After the fulfillment of both experimental drills, NASA space travelers Sunita Williams, Josh Cassada and Jeanette Epps will dispatch on the Starliner-1 mission, the first of six group revolution missions NASA and Boeing will fly as a component of the organization’s Commercial Crew Program.

Formal capability of Starliner’s flight programming additionally is in progress inside Boeing’s Avionics and Software Integration Lab in Houston. Groups are running both static and dynamic testing of the vehicle’s product to guarantee it’s coded as planned and fuses all mission prerequisites.

Test groups at that point will play out a whole start to finish mission situation, from prelaunch to docking and undocking to landing, utilizing a high-constancy set-up of equipment prior to flying the OFT-2 mission.

“NASA and Boeing are doing a tremendous amount of work on all aspects of their flight software running numerous cases through the Boeing high fidelity simulation environment that includes the Starliner avionics,” said Steve Stich, administrator of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Boeing has worked inseparably with NASA to address the entirety of the lessons gained from Starliner’s first flight. The company is over 90% complete in finishing off all the suggested activities created by a joint NASA and Boeing Independent Review Team, even those that were not required, in front of Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test.

Joined Launch Alliance additionally is gaining ground with the OFT-2 Atlas V equipment at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and prepared for handling for the forthcoming OFT-2 dispatch.

The Centaur upper stage for CFT is finished, and all equipment for the CFT mission is on target for a mid 2021 conveyance to the dispatch site. The equipment to help Starliner-1 is in advancement.

“The progress we’re making ahead of Starliner’s next flight is laying the groundwork for safe and reliable transportation services for NASA and a variety of customers for many years to come,” said John Vollmer, Starliner’s vice president and program manager at Boeing. “With each vehicle closeout, line of code tested, and document delivered, we’re on a path to proving we have a robust, fully operational vehicle. It’s truly a team with effort with NASA and our industry partners.”