According to NASA, Flight Readiness Reviews are starting today for the upcoming Boeing Crewed Flight Test of the Starliner Capsule “Calypso.” It is slated to launch with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard no earlier than May 6, 2024, at 10:34 PM EDT.

In those meetings, reviews of the preparations and technical states of the Atlas V rocket that will carry the capsule, Starliner and NASA will be examined and a determination made afterwards as to mission readiness.

Wilmore and Williams will quarantine at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston before traveling to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than Thursday, April 25, where they’ll remain in quarantine until launch.

Meanwhile, teams also are preparing for the Flight Test Readiness Review, which will take place over the course of two days – Wednesday, April 24, and April 25. That review brings together teams from NASA, Boeing, ULA, and its international partners to verify mission readiness including all systems, facilities, and teams that will support the end-to-end test of the Starliner.

Following a successful flight test, NASA will begin certifying the Starliner system for regular crew rotation missions to space station for the agency.

Launch is scheduled no earlier than 10:34 p.m. EDT May 6.

NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test Astronauts Enter Quarantine for Mission

Starliner is already mounted atop Atlas V, and both the launch vehicle and capsule continue to undergo preparations for the launch. As with all launches, there is a lengthy to-do list, and part of the Launch Readiness Review will be to examine where all parties are in the process that leads up to liftoff.

Astronauts In Quarantine

Wilmore and Williams have entered quarantine, a normal step before a crewed launch: NASA and its ISS international partners want to ensure that new astronauts arriving at the ISS do not bring any communicable illnesses—even a common cold—to the crew already aboard the orbiting outpost.

NASA and Boeing also want to ensure that the crew is fit and ready for launch and orbital activities, which culminate in Starliner docking at the ISS a few days after launch from here on the Space Coast.

This has been done for decades and is part of the regimen of a launch campaign.

NASA does not provide coverage of these internal meetings but will instead announce the findings Thursday at 6 PM EDT when they hold a press conference. Stay tuned.

You can learn more about NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test by following the mission blog, the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew on X, and commercial crew on Facebook. Talk of Titusville will also offer full coverage of events leading up to the launch and the launch itself.