NASA's manned missions slate now has Boeing Starliner ahead of SpaceX Dragon

NASA released an updated timetable for its Commercial Crew Program with manned missions from Cape Canaveral from Boeing and SpaceX now both targeted for the end of the year.

“The next generation of American spacecraft and rockets that will launch astronauts to the International Space Station are nearing the final stages of development and evaluation,” reads a short post from NASA.

The latest update has uncrewed test flights for both the Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Dragon capsule slated for August.

Boeing is then slated for a crewed November test flight of Starliner, which would be launched on board an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

SpaceX would then follow with a crewed flight of Dragon on board a Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center in December.

Boeing’s August flight is dubbed Orbital Flight Test followed by November’s Crew Flight Test. SpaceX’s August flight is dubbed Demonstration Mission 1 followed by December’s Demonstration Mission 2.

While Boeing’s timetable has not changed, the dates cited by NASA mark a delay on SpaceX’s previously planned dates by four months. The two companies provide NASA with quarterly updates on progress.

NASA awaits the completion of both flights for either company before certifying it safe for use to return astronauts on low-Earth-orbit missions. Right now, ISS crews must fly on board Russian Soyuz spacecraft launched from Baikanor, Kazakhstan. The last manned mission from the U.S. was in 2011 when Space Shuttle Atlantis flew the last mission of the shuttle program.

When approved, each company is slated for six missions to the space station between 2019 and 2024, a total of 12 missions between the two companies.

Plans will be for NASA to send four astronauts up to the station on each mission, one more than the current three-person crews.

The manned test flight from Boeing will feature one NASA astronaut and one Boeing employee. SpaceX’s manned test flight will feature two NASA astronauts.

rtribou@orlandosentinel.com, 407-420-5134

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