NASA clears Boeing's Starliner spacecraft for critical test flight to space station
CBSN
NASA and Boeing held a day-long flight readiness review Thursday and cleared the company's CST-100 Starliner astronaut ferry ship for launch July 30 on a second unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.
The spacecraft's maiden flight in December 2019 was marred by major software problems that prevented a planned rendezvous with the station. Next week's Orbital Flight Test No. 2, or OFT-2, will test a wide variety of upgrades and improvements intended to clear the way for a piloted test flight by the end of the year. "After reviewing the team's data, and the readiness of all the parties, everybody said 'go' for the launch," said Kathy Lueders, NASA's director of spaceflight. "To me, this review was a reflection of the diligence and the passion of this Boeing and NASA team that really chose to learn and adapt and come back stronger for this uncrewed demonstration mission."Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.