ULA Launches NASA’s Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test

The Boeing Crew Flight Test mission is the first flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft with humans onboard. The crew is composed of Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams. This is the third attempt to launch the mission.

Launch on June 5th at 10:52:14AM EDT (14:52:14 UTC)

Mission: Atlas V launch with Starliner Calypso to the International Space Station
Launch location: Space Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Earth.
Target orbit: Low Earth Orbit; 72.91-by-181.53 kilometers 51.62 degree inclination
Booster: AV-085
Configuration: N22 - No fairing, 2 solid rocket motors, and 2 RL10 engines on the Centaur upper stage. "Body Guard"
Capsule: Spacecraft 3 (Calypso); 1627d 1h 53min 21s turnaround
Capsule history: OFT-1
Rocket trajectory: Northeast hugging the east coast of the United States
Mission Commander: Butch Wilmore - 3rd spaceflight
Mission Pilot: Sunita Williams - 3rd spaceflight
Stats:
· ULA's 161st launch overall and its 3rd launch of the year
· Atlas V's 100th launch, 3rd launch in N22 configuration
· ULA's 75th launch from SLC-41, 83rd launch of Atlas V from SLC-41
· 3rd orbital flight of a Starliner spacecraft and 1st human spaceflight by Boeing
· This mission will bring up to 2 the total of people sent by Boeing to orbit

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[jamescobban]

Atlas-Centaur is one of the most reliable boosters and Centaur is the longest serving upper stage. The S-II and S-IVB stages on the Saturn V were essentially just Centaurs with bigger fuel tanks and more RL-10s.

[MrKellymcilrath]

Thank you NSF for the Awsome Coverage, And all the hard work that you and your staff

[CoryDAnimates]

That rocket left the pad with great expedience.

[MarinaR-nbvi]

I missed such an event. But I'm happy that Starliner is on its way to the ISS.

[WilboBaggins-dmub]

Chris B and all of the team at NSF should be so proud of what you do. So many of us take so much...I'll always support NSF!

[wadewilson]

Makes you realize how spoiled we are with SpaceX's launch video coverage.... this turned into simply an animation with voice-over pretty quickly.

[sluggo]

I've said this for a long time now. The flap roots should be relocated to a 120 degree orientation, in the lee (backside) of the ship, so that the plasma doesn't even impinge on them, or on the hinge point. Then, the flaps themselves (which would likely need to be made longer to compensate), could be introduced into the slipstream at a more oblique angle to better dissipate heat, while still maintaining the required net surface area to do their job. It would amount to much less complex geometry for the TPS and nothing but a plane (flat) surface in the plasma field and reduce the need for such robust protection at the flap roots.

[lancelotlake]

4:37:37 - Good point.. it must be awesome to be able to *fly* an actual spaceship!

[antoinesteeghs]

I am missing the graphics, like speed, height, direction position above the earth…..

[nikbignell]

Always cuts to animation, and returns with a different image.
why is that?

[lgtwzrd]

Someone please explain to me the high tech ULA windows taskbar with the trashbin shortcut on it. I need to understand.

[camapa]

The "commentator/commentators" -- not mission control -- continually talked over mission control and often sounded like they had no idea what was going on.

[scdi]

When do we get to see the booster return?

[flirman]

Congrads of a good launch.. alot of testing in space to due..

[christopher-bjde]

When do the boosters return to the drone ships?? 🤣

[sluggo]

The only reason we could even see what was left of that forward flap during landing, through the broken and obscured lens, was because it was glowing white hot!

[ronnonyabizness]

Starliner is a bit over the top for the capsule name. How about Space Wagon instead.

[zacharybraganza]

With all the satellites we have to see a cartoon

[pm]

How is it NASA still doesn't have 4K onboard video outside the craft like SpaceX??? It's like watch video from 25 years ago.

[iamaduckquack]

You can always tell the real space enthusiasts VS the dullards that just want to complain.