‘Starliner’ from Boeing for 2017 Space Mission

Till now we have known the Boeing’s under – development Space capsule by the name of CST-100 which stands for Crew Space Transportation and that 100 means 100 kilometres. Boeing has released an illustration of CST-100 flying in the lower orbit of the Earth with its crew members. Boeing is now calling it the “Starliner”. It previously had one Dreamliner. The name was announced on Friday at a special event. Approximately 200 people including Boeing and NASA officials, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and a group of astronauts attended the event held at Kennedy Space Center at NASA. The event was organized to celebrate the grand opening of Boeing’s cargo processing facility and a commercial crew. A building which was once a space shuttle hangar will now house the Starliner. It will make its first journey to International Space Station in 2017.

NASA has contracted two private US companies for transporting astronauts and Boeing is one of them. It will transport astronauts from Cape Canaveral. The other company is SpaceX. SpaceX is currently said to be working up on its ‘Super Dragon’ which is an improved version of its previous Dragon Capsule that is used for carrying cargo. SpaceX is located in Hawthorne, California. NASA wants to transport its astronaut from its own land rather than making expensive rides from Russian Space Agency. Chris Ferguson, Commander of the last flight coined the name Starliner. He is now the deputy manager of Boeing’s commercial crew operations. Ferguson said, “We get asked a lot, ‘When are you going to pick a name for that wonderful spacecraft? Well, I’ve always said, ‘Just wait. It’s coming.’ Well, guess what? The wait is over. Please welcome the CST-100 Starliner,” as the curtain behind him rose and revealed the Starliner spacecraft sections. The next summer, the Chicago – based company will be 100 years old.

Charles Bolden Jr., NASA administrator, talked about their plans for sending astronauts to Mars in 2030s missions with help from Boeing and SpaceX. Bolden said, “If you’re not excited, then there’s something wrong with you, to be quite honest.”

Thomas Stafford, most senior astronaut (Gemini and Apollo) and now 84 said, “It’s a great name.” Stafford journeyed to moon and back on Apollo 10 and told that this spacecraft is Apollo moon program’s reminiscent. NASA’s contract with Boeing and SpaceX is worth $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion respectively.