1st Boeing Starliner astronauts are ready to launch to the ISS for NASA (exclusive)

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore wearing Boeing spacesuits in the Starliner spacecraft simulator at NASA's Johnson Space Center during emergency training on Nov. 3, 2022.HOUSTON — Two former U.S. Navy test pilots, now NASA astronauts, can't wait to finally get their hands on a new spacecraft.

Boeing's Starliner makes its first uncrewed approach to the International Space Station during Orbital Flight Test-2 on May 21, 2022.Wilmore said the second commercial crew vehicle will allow"continued access to space" from American soil, which is important. NASA relied upon Russianto launch astronauts for a decade while Dragon was under development; in fact, both Williams and Wilmore flew aboard Soyuz on past missions.

"All the other stuff than the nominal mission," she continued,"we've gone through it a number of times. We're hoping all the automation works as advertised, but we have ways to, you know, work around it in case we have a couple of hiccups here and there. Then hopefully, we can jump right back in the automation and continue the mission as designed. So we feel really confident about it at this point.

Williams, an avid skier, joked that staying off the slopes for an extended period was one of the hardest parts of the wait for space as the crew needs to de-risk its activities in the meantime. But the astronauts have had an important role in those extra years, serving as quality assurance because"our eyes are on the spacecraft."NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore examine Boeing Starliner switches ahead of Crew Flight Test, the first astronaut flight with that spacecraft.

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Mike Fincke at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, backdropped by the Vehicle Assembly Building.Kutryk, a test pilot and fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force before joining CSA in 2017, said the entire team behind CFT is working the same principles as he learned in the military:"Predict, test, validate."

"We wanted to match our modeling of Starliner at a system level or vehicle performance level. We want to validate those models. We want to reinforce confidence in the fact that we understand the vehicle, and all of its different modes."

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