I am embarking on a new mission, keeping my feet firmly planted here on earth and prioritizing my most important crew – my family. I will still work hard with the #startliner team on our crew and @nasa_astronots. pic.twitter.com/PgdhPqwYQSOctober October 7, 2020
Chris Ferguson will not command the crew flight of the buying Starliner spacecraft.
Ferguson, the veteran astronaut who ordered NASA’s final space shuttle mission before leaving the agency for Boeing in 2011, withdrew from the company’s crew flight test in 2021 citing personal reasons. This test mission will send the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft International Space Station On an astronaut-carrying shakeout cruise.
Ferguson will replace NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore at the commander’s seat, who is training as a backup with Ferguson and fellow crumate Mike Finker and Nicole Mann, both of whom are also NASA astronauts, for more than two years.
Related: Boeing’s first Starliner flight test in the photo
“Butch will be able to take action seamlessly, and his previous experience with both the space shuttle and the space station mission will be a valuable addition to this flight,” said Kathy Luders, associate director of NASA’s Directorate of Human Research and Mission Operations. Said in a statement.
Wilmore has been in space for a total of 178 days on two missions, a space shuttle flight to the orbiting lab in 2009 and a stay of about 6 months on the station in 2014 and 2015. During this subsequent mission, Wilmore operated four spacewalks.
Ferguson said leaving the post was a very difficult decision and he is committed to moving forward and helping Starliner. “But next year is very important for my family, and I’ve made a lot of commitments that I can’t risk missing,” he said in one. Video statement posted on Twitter today (Oct.).
“Chris has been a talented member of the crew for this mission,” Lloyders said. “The NASA and Boeing commercial crew teams sincerely appreciate the invaluable work they have accomplished, and will continue to move forward in the development of the Starliner, which will help ensure that the Starliner crew flight test is successful.”
In 2014, Boeing signed a lin 4.2 billion contract with NASA’s commercial crew program, with at least six operational missions to be flown from the flight station and the Stryler erline. During the same period, SpaceX signed a $ 2.6 billion deal that Elon Musk’s company will complete using its Crew Dragon Capsule.
SpaceX has already flown its crew flight test – the version Demo-2 Mission, Which took NASA astronauts Bob Behanken and Doug Hurley to and from the orbit lab this summer. SpaceX is now preparing for its first operational flight station Crew-1, which will start on October 31.
Starliner’s path has been rocky. In December 2019, the capsule failed to meet with the station as planned during its first mission, the Orbital Flight Test, which opened. Boeing will suggest this mission, early next year, before putting the astronauts for crew flight tests.
Ferguson’s departure for the crew flight test is not the first crew shakeup. Finke arrived in the morning in January 2019 Eric Bone was pulled for medical reasons.
Mike W. Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book about the quest for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @Mamildld. Follow us on Twitter @speed.com or Facebook.
