The Stars My Destination: Boeing Crew Flight Test

Better Late than Never | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

The Space Age
5 June-6 September 2024: Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore (N.A.S.A.) & Pilot Suni Williams (N.A.S.A.) lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's SLC-41 aboard the Starliner Calypso (Spacecraft 3) atop an Atlas V rocket. The Calypso made it to orbit without incident. After dangerous thruster failures during the approach to the International Space Station, the duo docked for an intended week-long mission. After pouring over data & the ground testing of Starliner components, N.A.S.A. judged it too risky to return the crew to Earth aboard the Calypso; Wilmore & Williams were transferred to long-duration crew aboad the I.S.S. with the Crew Dragon Endeavour (C206) as their emergency lifeboat.

After ninety-three days on orbit, the Calypso returned uncrewed & landed at the White Sands Space Harbor.

Wilmore was a veteran of two previous spaceflights (S.T.S.-129 & Soyuz TMA-14M for Expeditions 41 & 42); Williams was also a veteran of two previous spaceflights (S.T.S.-116 [launch]/S.T.S.-117 [landing] for Expeditions 14 & 15 & Soyuz TMA-05M for Expeditions 32 & 33).

Boe-C.F.T. was the second flight of the Calypso.

A February 2026 report classified Boe-C.F.T. as a Type A mishap, the most serious category of mission failure. The report was especially critical of decision-making & leadership within both N.A.S.A. & Boeing. The next Boeing Starliner mission, Starliner-1, will be an uncrewed cargo flight, the third uncrewed flight after Boeing Orbital Flight Test (Boe-O.F.T., 2019) & Boe-O.F.T.-2 (2022). By contrast, the SpaceX Crew Dragon conducted only a single successful uncrewed test flight (Demo-1, 2019).

Bonus! Song o' the Day: Boe-C.F.T. & the Calypso
Robert Preston, "Ya Got Trouble" from The Music Man: Original Soundtrack (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Wayback Machine Tour of Launch America
2020
Demo-2 Launch
Demo-2 Splashdown
Crew-1 Launch
2021
Crew-1 Relocation
Crew-2 Launch
Crew-1 Splashdown
Inspiration4 Launch & Splashdown
Crew-2 Splashdown
Crew-3 Launch
2022
Ax-1 Launch & Splashdown
Crew-4 Launch
Crew-3 Splashdown
Crew-5 Launch
Crew-4 Splashdown
2023
Crew-6 Scrub
Crew-6 Launch
Crew-5 Splashdown
Ax-2 Launch & Splashdown
Crew-7 Launch
Crew-6 Splashdown
2024
Ax-3 Launch & Splashdown
Crew-7 Splashdown
Crew-8 Launch & Splashdown

Godspeed, Butch & Suni, & welcome back to the good Earth, Calypso!