Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time.
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the first people to fly on Boeing Starliner, are the two astronauts of Crew Flight Test. Here they are pictured during a launch dress rehearsal on April 26, 2024.Two NASA astronauts are days away from partaking in a new spacecraft's first-ever human launch — if schedules hold, that is.'s debut crew, Barry"Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams, told reporters on Wednesday that their test pilot experience with the U.S.
"That background of understanding test acquisition was required to certify various components ... the vital importance of making sure that in an integrated fashion, everything works as planned. That's been invaluable for the process," Wilmore said of bringing his piloting work to bear on Starliner's development. Still, he noted that decades ago,"I don't think either one of us ever dreamed that we'd be associated with the first flight of a brand-new spacecraft.
The astronauts also aim to ensure that what they see on the ground, during simulations, represents what they'd see during the real-life mission.
In past press conferences, Wilmore has also emphasized the role of CFT is primarily developmental. Thus, he explains, despite all of the team's hard work, some unknowns cannot be sorted until astronauts get inside the spacecraft. Pending the mission's success, the next excursion will be much longer: Starliner-1 is expected to lift off in 2025 on the first operational, crewed six-month mission.
Given the delays in Starliner's first astronaut test, several astronauts have either been shuffled from CFT and Starliner-1 to other missions, or reassigned between Starliner flights to meet operational requirements for NASA's space station program. So, despite their extensive flight experience that eventually brought them on CFT, both Williams and Wilmore said the"stars aligned" to put them in these seats.
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