Just five months after revealing the NASA astronauts who will fly the crewed test flights for both SpaceX\u2019s Dragon and Boeing\u2019s Starliner missions, NASA announced today that a medical issue will prevent one of those astronauts from flying the Starliner crewed test flight.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The announcement came via the agency\u2019s website, noting that Eric Boe, a two-time Space Shuttle astronaut, was no longer assigned to the CST-100 Starliner test mission.<\/p>\n
Boe is a veteran of two Shuttle flight; he served as Pilot of Endeavour during her STS-126 mission in November 2008 to the Space Station and as Pilot of Discovery\u2019s 39th and final mission, STS-133, in February 2011.<\/p>\n
He was then selected as one of four astronauts to work closely with Boeing and SpaceX in the development of their Starliner and Dragon crew transportation spacecraft \u2013 working with fellow astronauts Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley, and Sunita Williams.<\/p>\n
In August 2018, Boe was officially selected to fly the Boeing Starliner crew test flight.<\/p>\n
NASA noted today that Boe\u2019s removal from the flight was due to a medical issue, saying \u201cEric Boe, originally assigned to the mission in August 2018, is unable to fly due to medical reasons; he will replace Fincke as the assistant to the chief for commercial crew in the astronaut office at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center.\u201d<\/p>\n