NASA Commercial Crew: Boeing to Launch this April for its Starliner Test Flight, 2023 Manifest Updated

NASA's Commercial Crew will be seeing a busy 2023 as the space agency updated its flight manifest for next year, centering on its missions towards the International Space Station. Boeing is finally joining the Commercial Crew flights with the upcoming Crew Flight Test (CFT) using its Starliner vessel, a spacecraft that initially faced delays due to problems.

Alongside Boeing is the long-time NASA partner for this program, SpaceX, who will also deliver its fair share of astronauts and cargo resupply missions toward the space station.

NASA Commercial Crew: Boeing Starliner Test Flight

NASA's latest blog post updates the public o the upcoming missions for the Commerical Crew in 2023, and it announced the possible flight of the Boeing Starliner by April next year. Boeing and NASA are working together on the Starliner to achieve flight readiness, something which has been delayed multiple times due to issues with its valves.

It is known that Boeing Starliner previously completed its orbital flight test, uncrewed, last May, and as it was going to its next steps towards launching humans to the space station, problems occurred.

Boeing's CST-100 Starliner will sit atop United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, which will help with its first stage of launch in April 2023.

SpaceX's Commercial Crew Missions in 2023

On the other hand, NASA is continuing its contract with SpaceX for the Commercial Crew, with the earliest flight taking place in February 2023, with Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 delivering the payload.

The SpaceX mission will launch the Crew06 batch which will bring astronauts towards the space station with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates' Sultan AlNeyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev.

NASA Commercial Crew

The NASA Commercial Crew's focus is to bring more astronauts to the space station with regular changes to their lineup, as well as utilizing private companies to do their bidding and complete the mission. Its participants include Boeing and SpaceX, two of the known American multinational commercial space companies in the world.

And while SpaceX already delivered many missions for NASA, Boeing will only begin by 2023 due to multiple delays on its Starliner vessel.

Boeing's CST-100 Starliner is its take for the human and cargo vessel for the space station, but its initial massive problems manifested during its trial runs, forcing them to delay and fix the issue.

There were multiple attempts for Boeing to push through with its Starliner, but issues with its valves were potential dangers that it needs to address first before launch.

However, it would be a different story for 2020, as it would not only be SpaceX who will be doing NASA's bidding for them but also Boeing with its Starliner vessel to finally launch astronauts to space. 2023 will bring a busy time for the space industry, particularly with the Commercial Crew that will accelerate the agency's missions and research in the orbiting station.

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Written by Isaiah Richard