What A History to Build a Future On

If the valves are merciful, a bit of space history will be made this month.

Boeing's new Starliner spacecraft, developed under NASA's Commercial Crew program, was slated to make its first flight on May 6. A valve issue pushed it back, and it's now targeting launch no earlier than May 17.

As history-making goes, Starliner is likely doomed to be a bit overshadowed. Its initial raison d'être will be to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, a task SpaceX's Crew Dragon began performing under the NASA Commercial Crew program in 2020. In an era when much of the space world's focus is on the Moon, the sixth new US spacecraft to carry astronauts to Earth orbit may not receive the same attention as the first five, or even the seventh – as Orion is poised to carry the Artemis II crew on lap around Earth before a historic lunar jaunt next year.

But history it is.

I love to talk about my great-aunt's experience working as a NASA contractor. I don't know exactly when she started and when she left, but I know she was supporting Marshall during the Gemini program, and I know she was there for the return to flight after Challenger – at least a quarter century that saw the first flights of Apollo and shuttle, along with the first landings on the Moon.

Someone who started a quarter-century career supporting NASA when she left would have gone their entire time never seeing a new US spacecraft carry astronaut to orbit. They would have seen a lot of other history –?space stations and Mars rovers and telescopes and more – but no new American crew vehicles.

My tenure as a Marshall contractor has seen one already, and is about to see two more.

We are living in a Golden Age of space.

NASA started with the launches of three new crewed spacecraft in seven years –?Mercury in 1961, Gemini in 1965 and Apollo in 1968. After the first flight of shuttle, there were no new US orbital crew vehicles for almost four decades. Starliner will be part of toppling that record from the 1960s, with three new crewed orbital vehicles in five years, from Crew Dragon in 2020 to Orion next year. Even the pattern is the same –?two Earth orbit vehicles followed by a lunar spacecraft.

I enjoyed reading this week interviews with the three living astronauts who have done what the Starliner crew is about to do –?fly in a US spacecraft no one has flown in before. Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley flew the first Dragon four years ago; Bob Crippen was pilot of the first flight of the space shuttle, 43 years ago. In Crippen's case, it was not just a vehicle nobody had flown in before, it was a vehicle that hadn't flown before, period. Unlike every other US crew vehicle, there was no uncrewed test flight of shuttle – John Young and Crippen were along for the ride the first time it left Earth.

Bob Crippen, for the record, is kind of amazing. I've had the opportunity as a former journalist and a history writer to interview some incredible people, but I don't know that I was as awestruck talking to anyone as I was talking to Crip, about Skylab and SMEAT and having his spaceship shot by a Soviet space laser.

When I was getting ready to publish my space shuttle history, "Bold They Rise," Crippen was kind enough to write the foreword, and he talked in it about how he had the confidence to get in the cockpit of the shuttle for its first flight. And a lot of that confidence came from touring the country, meeting the people working on his ship, looking them in the eyes, and knowing that they were working to make sure he came home safely at the end of his mission.

It's been a decade since "Bold They Rise" came out, and I'm now part of a team working on getting another space vehicle ready to carry its first crew. We have something Young and Crippen did not –?a successful uncrewed test flight behind us – but it's still a daunting responsibility. Crippen's words have stuck with me; I've had the opportunity to meet the Artemis II crew when they came to Marshall, and I am looking forward to meeting them again when they come home safely at the end of the mission, and history is made again.

It's a privilege to watch this history unfold. It's incredible what this generation gets to see. I look forward to watching Starliner fly, and wish all the best to both the crew and the people responsible for making sure all their valves are safe. Because that's how history is made.

More on the Starliner launch: https://blogs.nasa.gov/boeing-crew-flight-test/2024/05/07/nasas-boeing-crew-flight-test-targets-new-launch-date/

The first-flights interview article: https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/spacex-got-the-fanfare-but-boeings-first-crew-flight-is-still-historic/