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<\/p>\nChris Ferguson, Director of Crew and Mission Operations for Boeing and a former NASA astronaut, has outlined Starliner\u2019s design and what Boeing and NASA have planned for the uncrewed and crewed test flights. The former Shuttle commander also spoke about how much simpler Starliner\u2019s displays will be in comparison to the orbiters.<\/p>\n
Working on a slightly different production timeline than SpaceX, Boeing\u2019s Starliner team\u2019s primary focus right now is on the vehicle that will fly second on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission No Earlier Than mid-2019.<\/p>\n
The second priority is the vehicle that will actually fly first on the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test (OFT) mission.<\/p>\n
The priority was visibly evident in the C3PF, with dozens of people working in and around the Starliner that will fly the CFT mission, while only one person was observed monitoring systems for the OFT vehicle.<\/p>\n
Ferguson discussed this workflow priority for the Starliners, stating, \u201cPriority number one is to get the Crew Flight Test vehicle, spacecraft number 2, out the door. So we\u2019re working to get that shipped out and on its merry way.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Eric Boe, Chris Ferguson, and Nicole Mann stand before the CFT Starliner that will take them to space in mid-2019. (Credit: Chris Gebhardt for NSF\/L2)<\/p>\n
This has to do with the fact that the CFT Starliner has to be shipped to the Boeing Facility in El Segundo for final vibration, pressure and acceptance testing prior to taking humans to space.<\/p>\n
This testing series in El Segundo is a vital part of the certification effort for Starliner and adds extra time to the CFT Starliner\u2019s schedule, time that is not needed for the OFT vehicle which does not have to go through the same procedures prior to its uncrewed test flight that is currently scheduled for either later this year or early next year according to NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program schedule.<\/p>\n
Once the CFT Starliner is completed and shipped to California, work priority in the C3PF (Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility) will shift nearly entirely to the OFT vehicle to prepare it for its mission to test the overall Starliner\/Atlas V launch configuration and autonomous controls during launch, docking, undocking, and reentry and landing operations. <\/p>\n
Rocket building kits (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n However, the Starliners themselves and their service modules weren\u2019t the only pieces of hardware on display that Boeing was eager to discuss during the event. Of note, the company had a mock-up of the control console that will be present within Starliner that one or two astronauts will be capable of interacting with during flights to and from the International Space Station.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way you interact with the screen is actually, we borrowed a little bit from Orion, and it\u2019s kind of the way some of the 5th generation military planes interact with pilots,\u201d noted Chris Ferguson.<\/p>\n The control console that will allow astronauts to interact with Starliner\u2019s systems. (Credit: Chris Gebhardt for NSF\/L2)<\/p>\n \u201cIn the corner of the display, we call it a twizzle, is the way you register your way through all the fields you can interact with on the screen. And there are also bezel buttons that enable you to interact with the vehicle as well.\u201d<\/p>\n But unlike SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon which relies on very few physical buttons over touchscreen technology, Starliner will include no such touchscreen tech. <\/p>\n \u201cNo touch screens,\u201d said Ferguson. \u201cBut you can see [there are] a very limited number of switches compared to Shuttle. I think someone counted and there are 40-ish as opposed to the 1,100 that were advertised for Shuttle. <\/p>\n \u201cSo no touchscreen. We interact in a very Orion-like way. And the switches you do see are really so that if you absolutely have to do something and don\u2019t have time to navigate your way through levels of displays, they\u2019re right there for you,\u201d noted Ferguson.<\/p>\n In relation to the Space Shuttle, Ferguson \u2013 who flew three Space Shuttle missions as Pilot on STS-115\/Atlantis, Commander of STS-126\/Endeavour, and Commander of the final Space Shuttle flight, STS-135\/Atlantis \u2013 stated \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a heck of a lot easier to learn how to fly Starliner than Shuttle.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/2018-08-20-182359.jpg\")
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