NASA to Host Boeing Crew Flight Test Preview, News Conferences

NASA will preview the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission to the International Space Station by hosting media tours Thursday, March 21, and with news conferences Friday, March 22, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA and Boeing officials will discuss flight test readiness, objectives, and priorities at 10 a.m. EDT March 22, and mission managers will discuss the flight plan, timeline, and details at 11:30 a.m. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will answer questions at 2 p.m. and will be available for individual interviews.

All three news conferences will air live on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.

Media will have opportunities the afternoon of March 21 to learn more about the flight test, while visiting the Boeing Starliner mockup, experience training in the Starliner simulator, and meet members of the flight control teams who will support the spacecraft’s first crewed flight.

The flight test, currently scheduled to launch early May due to space station scheduling, will transport Wilmore and Williams to the orbiting laboratory for a planned stay of up to two weeks. A United Launch Alliance rocket and the Boeing Starliner spacecraft will launch from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This will be the final media opportunity to speak to the astronauts before they travel to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch.

International media wishing to participate in person or seeking a remote interview with the astronauts must request credentials by 5 p.m. Monday, March 11, by contacting the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. U.S. media interested in attending must request credentials by 6 p.m. Monday, March 18, from the Johnson newsroom. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.

All media interested in participating in the news conference by phone must contact the Johnson newsroom by 9:45 a.m. March 22. Those wishing to submit questions on social media may do so using #AskNASA.

Thursday, March 21:

• 11:30 CDT (12:30 p.m. EDT) Media arrival at Johnson Space Center

Briefing participants include (all times Eastern and subject to change based on operations):

Friday, March 22:

10 a.m. Program Overview News Conference

• NASA Administrator Bill Nelson
• Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA
• Dana Weigel, deputy manager, International Space Station Program, NASA
• Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, Boeing Starliner Program

11:30 a.m. Mission Overview News Conference

• Mike Lammers, flight director, Starliner ascent, NASA
• Vincent LaCourt, flight director, International Space Station Program, NASA
• Ed Van Cise, flight director, Starliner rendezvous, NASA

2 p.m. Crew News Conference

• Butch Wilmore, NASA astronaut, mission commander
• Suni Williams, NASA astronaut, mission pilot

Wilmore, a U.S. Navy captain, is a veteran of two spaceflights and has accumulated 178 days in space. Selected as an astronaut in 2000, he served as a flight engineer for Expedition 41 from September to November 2014, then assumed command of Expedition 42 until his return to Earth in March 2015. During this mission, he logged 167 days in space and performed four spacewalks. In 2009, Wilmore served as a pilot aboard space shuttle Atlantis for STS-129. From Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, Wilmore earned degrees from Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Williams, a retired Navy captain, is a veteran of two space station missions, Expedition 14/15 and 32/33, and served as commander of Expedition 33. Selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998, she has logged 322 days in space, first launching on the space shuttle Discovery with the crew of STS-116, then on a Roscosmos Soyuz spacecraft. Williams has completed seven spacewalks, totaling 50 hours and 40 minutes. Williams considers Needham, Massachusetts, to be her hometown and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1987 and Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, in 1995.

Learn more about how NASA innovates for the benefit of humanity through NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

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Joshua Finch / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / claire.a.oshea@nasa.gov

Leah Cheshier / Anna Schneider
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
leah.d.cheshier@nasa.gov / anna.c.schneider@nasa.gov