NASA selects Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams for Boeing's debut crewed mission

NASA, on June 16, announced the name of two astronauts who will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in Boeing Space's first Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission. The selected astronauts are Indian-American NASA veteran Sunita Williams, who will serve as the pilot and Barry Wilmore, the mission commander with NASA astronaut Mike Fincke training as a backup pilot. The duo would launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force station on a yet-to-be-finalised date.

Notably, Williams has been training with NASA and Boeing for the CFT which will soon take her off for her third long-duration mission. Williams, along with Wilmore will stay and work aboard the ISS for two weeks.

Boeing moves ahead with OFT-2 success

The announcement comes after the success of Boeing's recent Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) uncrewed mission. In what was the company's second uncrewed flight, a Starliner capsule was launched on May 19 with 362 kilograms of cargo to test the end-to-end capabilities of Starliner from launch to docking, atmospheric re-entry, and a desert landing. While Starliner's thrusters suffered a malfunction after liftoff, it managed to dock at the ISS and completed all parameters for a successful mission.

"Starliner and the Atlas V performed well during all phases of OFT-2, and now we are taking a methodical look at each system to determine what needs to be upgraded or improved ahead of CFT, just as we do with every other crewed flight", Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program said in a statement. "Additionally, Butch, Suni, and Mike have been instrumental in the development of Starliner on the path to having a second space station crew transportation system". 

NASA said that if the CFT mission turns out to be successful, it will begin the process of certifying Starliner for regular commercial launches to the space station. Boeing is one of the two companies, apart from SpaceX, who were awarded contracts to send astronauts and cargo to space for NASA. SpaceX was certified for both crew and cargo launches in 2020 with the success of Demo-2 wherein it launched two astronauts in its Dragon capsule.