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Maybe, just maybe, Boeing’s Starliner will finally fly astronauts this spring


The first launch of astronauts on Boeing's Starliner capsule is targeted for April 22.

Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will fly Starliner to a docking with the space station, then return to Earth for an airbag-cushioned parachute-assisted landing in New Mexico. During their final safety reviews last year, engineers discovered the soft link connections were more prone to failure than anticipated, especially in a situation where one of the spacecraft's three main chutes didn't deploy. While Boeing prepared for the parachute drop test, technicians inside the Starliner factory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center removed most of the flammable P213 tape from the spacecraft assigned to the upcoming astronaut flight.

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