After a successful uncrewed flight test, Starliner’s reusable crew module heads to the factory for re-flight prep.
Starliner is on the move again, crossing six states on its way back to Florida from where it landed in New Mexico. With the “Rosie the Rocketeer” anthropometric test device in the commander seat, the CST-100 Starliner capsule departed White Sands Missile Range last week, bound for Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Upon arrival, processing of the crew module will continue as teams perform further inspections, data collection, cargo and Rosie offload, and re-flight preparations for the post-certification mission, Starliner-1, which occurs after the Crew Flight Test. In parallel, the NASA and Boeing teams are analyzing the data in preparation for the upcoming Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station.
The Starliner capsule landed on May 25 and teams later prepared the spacecraft for transport, including downloading stored flight data as part of detailed post-flight analysis for future flights.
Starliner met its objectives during all the key phases of the test flight — launch, docking, undocking and landing — finishing with a picturesque touchdown similar to 2019 when it became the first American-made orbital crew capsule to land on land.