Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are scheduled to board this test flight on May 6, which will take place several years later, and travel to the International Space Station (ISS) for about a week.
“We’re on the cusp of expanding our agency’s ability to deliver to and from the space station, and that’s vitally important,” Butch said at a news conference.
Since 2020, NASA astronauts have been transported to the ISS using the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
The US space agency wants to have a second service provider, but Boeing has had problems developing Starliner for several years.
After an unsuccessful flight in 2019, the spacecraft finally managed to reach the ISS in May 2022 – without a crew on board.
It must now conduct manned tests for certification and begin operational flights.
Boeing had hoped to be able to carry out this first manned flight in 2022, but successive delays have continued.
Astronauts who have already traveled to the ISS expressed “complete confidence” in the new spacecraft on Thursday.
The rocket that will propel the Starliner capsule on May 6 is the Atlas V from United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
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