Crucial test flight for Boeing’s Starliner
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A successful mission would pave the way for the launch of a crewed flight test, which could then allow Boeing to begin regularly ferrying NASA astronauts to orbit
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UNITED LAUNCH ALLIANCE ATLAS V ROCKET

55m

CST-100 STARLINER

Reusable crew capsule
Crew: Up to 7

Service Module Diameter: 4.5m

Starliner was developed with NASA funding, as was SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule

2019: First uncrewed Starliner test launch nearly resulted in loss of capsule

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS)
Russian U.S. / European / Japanese segment modules

Zvezda 
Poisk
Zarya
Unity
Kibo
Harmony 
Columbus
Destiny

Nauka: Mishap involving newly installed Russian module forced delay to latest Starliner launch

Soyuz or Progress


Starliner aims to dock with ISS

Station truss segments and solar arrays not shown
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Sources: Boeing, NASA
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