Monday, September 7, 2015

Boeing Opens New Space Facility, Adopts Starliner Name

New space shuttle...


Artist's concept of new Starliner space shuttle.

Starting in 2017 or 2018, Boeing will begin ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station, Joseph Stromberg reports on vox.com.

On Friday, at the opening ceremony for the Florida facility where it'll build its spacecraft, Boeing also announced the vehicle's name: the Starliner.

The Starliner (previously known as the CST-100) is a cone-shaped capsule designed to be launched into orbit atop a rocket, carrying up to seven people into space. Along with SpaceX's Dragon, it will run regular crewed missions to the space station, replacing NASA's Space Shuttle, which was retired in 2011.

Commenting on the change to Starliner, Astronaut Thomas Stafford said, "It's a great name." Stafford, 84, flew to the moon on Apollo 10, two months before the first manned moon landing in 1969.  He said the spacecraft is reminiscent of the capsules from the Apollo moon program.

For a good video on the Starliner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh5WaiZTK0k

For the NASA report on the new facility and Starliner:  http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/09/cst-100-starliner-boeing-processing-facility-kennedy/


Working on new Starliner crew capsule.

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