Every country is developing day-by-day and has a race against each other in the tech field just like that America just launches an astronaut capsule which helps in another step of the space field. United States (NASA) Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft onboard is seen as it is rolling out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the Orbital Flight Test mission on Dec. 18 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The orbital Flight Test is Starliner’s maiden mission to the International Space Station for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The mission, currently targeted for a 6:26 a.m. EST launch on Dec. 20, 2019, will serve as an end-to-end test of the system’s capabilities.
IN THE SPACECRAFT
The cargo on board Starliner today contains clothing, food, radiation monitoring equipment, some holiday presents for the six crew members on board the station and an anthropometric test device (ATD) or flight test dummy named “Rosie the Astronaut,” or just Rosie for short. The test device, named after Rosie the Riveter, an inspirational figure for working women during World War II (and still today), is equipped with a number of special sensors that will collect data to inform Boeing and NASA about how Starliner’s journey to and from space will likely affect future human crewmembers.
CREW IN COMMAND
Assuming all goes well over the next year, Starliner should get the green light to ferry people to the ISS early next year.
The first crew has already been selected. It will comprise Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann, both Nasa employees, and the Boeing test pilot Chris Ferguson (Ferguson was the commander on the final shuttle mission and left Nasa to help Boeing develop Starliner).
Mr. Finke, who is one of the most experienced astronauts in history with more than a year of his life spent in orbit, said the new astronaut taxis should open up a new era in human spaceflight.
“We crew, we’re looking forward to commercial infrastructure in space because this means more flight assignments for us, which is what we as astronauts really live for. But it’s also more flight assignments for the non-government astronaut types. This is a really interesting time,” he told reporters on Thursday.
