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<\/p>\nNASA and Boeing have finished the agency Flight Readiness Review (FRR) for the second Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2) of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. OFT-2 will demonstrate the changes made to the Starliner spacecraft following the first OFT mission, which was conducted in December 2019.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Flight Readiness Review<\/b><\/p>\n
OFT-2 is the third flight of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner, following the pad abort test and the first OFT mission. This mission will demonstrate the changes made to Starliner after the partial failure of the first OFT mission, which was cut short due to multiple software issues during flight.<\/p>\n
After undergoing many changes, Boeing made the decision to re-do OFT. The Starliner spacecraft underwent several software changes, a multitude of software testing, and one major hardware change to the docking system. A new cover was added to the nose of the Starliner to protect the docking port from the dangers of reentry, similar to the nose cone of SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon.<\/p>\n
With the hardware and software changes completed and the Starliner now integrated with the Atlas V rocket, there were two critical pre-launch steps. The first, which was just completed, was the Flight Readiness Review, or FRR.<\/p>\n
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The OFT-2 Flight Readiness Review is conducted at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center \u2013 via NASA<\/p>\n
The FRR is a meeting between Boeing, NASA, United Launch Alliance, Roscosmos, JAXA, and other International Space Station partners where they discuss the status of Starliner\u2019s systems. The teams presented technical in-depth assessments, ensuring that the spacecraft, ISS, and launch vehicle are ready to support Starliner\u2019s flight. <\/p>\n
The FRR has historically been the most important \u201cgo\u201d for launch by NASA to launch a mission. Previously a major part of Space Shuttle campaigns, these reviews are now conducted for all Commercial Crew Program (CCP) missions.<\/p>\n
Spaceflight history books (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n The OFT-2 FRR marked one of the shortest Commercial Crew Program FRRs to date, lasting under a day, finishing at ~2:30 PM EDT (18:30 UTC).<\/p>\n After the review, the teams declared that Starliner is go to launch to the ISS at 2:53 PM EDT (18:53 UTC) on July 30. Roughly 24 hours after launch, the Starliner spacecraft will dock to the forward port on the ISS\u2019s Harmony module, which will mark the first time that the Starliner has docked to the ISS. There is a backup launch window on August 3.<\/p>\n