Boeing's Starliner Launch to the International Space Station

Welcome this morning to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I'm Marie Lewis with NASA Public Affairs and I'm Josh Barrett with Boeing Communications. Starliner is almost ready for our uncrewed orbital flight test. You can see it over our shoulders illuminated at

launch

. platform it's a little windy outside, but right now that won't stop the scheduled 6:36 a.m. takeoff. ET, let's take another look at the platform. Ground crews are currently concluding operations in the clean room. I want to take them back at about 4:34 a.m. This morning was when they closed the hatch inside the clean room.

We should have some video of them wrapping up that operation, yeah, and there you see, now the rig equipment is up and running about 45 minutes ahead of schedule, which is really amazing news about their first time doing that, yeah, remarkable because this is the first time they've really done it. It was great. I mean, this video you're watching was a little earlier this morning. You said they were ahead of schedule, so they've already left the clean room, but everything looks good and there's no crew flying today, but the teams are operating as if there were astronauts on board.

Now, this is a live view. The crew is still there in the tower and we, as we get closer to the

launch

, we will see the clean room and the crew access arm begins to move away from the Starliner in preparation for takeoff, but there they are making the final preparations. to leave the pad now, this uncrewed test flight is incredibly important so that we can demonstrate that we can safely deliver astronauts to the

international

space

station

. This is a big day for all NASA, Boeing and United Launch Alliance teams since the

space

shuttle program ended.

We have all been working hard to return human spaceflight capability to the United States. We call this effort NASA's commercial crew program. It's a partnership we have with Boeing and Spacex and today is the big debut of Starliner and our goal is for everyone watching today to see a mission as close to a raw flight as possible and collect mountains of data that we can only learn by flying. It is also the first time our mission teams have had the opportunity to put Starliner through its paces. We've all been practicing, but now, like you. we can see in the control room that it is game day.

We're so excited to show you how this all comes together. The NASA, Boeing and ULA teams all have to be in unison to succeed. Nowadays, we all have people spread across the country sitting at the console. we have three control rooms here in florida the united launch alliance atlas space the space flight operations center is at cape canaveral air force

station

starliner

launch control the

boeing

mission control center is at right in front of us here in Kennedy and NASA's emergency operations center is activated ready to respond at a moment's notice, so in Houston, at the Johnson Space Center, the space station control room is also closely monitoring the Starliner's mission and mission control is just down the hall from the space station control room, which is where flight controllers are actually in command of the vehicle. now and finally, ula also has teams in Denver monitoring the climb, so first we want to contact the Atlas launch control team, they are just a few miles from where we are here in Florida and their job is to make sure the rocket remains healthy at this time before and during the launch, we have united launch alliances dylan rice monitoring this morning's activities at the asoc dylan how is the rocket?

Hi good morning josh marie things are great here this morning it's been a really good morning for you. I can see how the team brought Atlas Centaur and Starliner to the platform a day ago. Crews have been working through the night to prepare the vehicle for launch. All of our propellant tanks are loaded. The vehicle is in a stable position while the ground crew finishes their final work. Loading of cargo onto the Starliner and I understand that everything has now been completed and the team is beginning to close the clean room for operations today this is a big day for us this is the return of Atlas to its Heritage human spaceflight, the The first American astronaut to orbit the Earth was John Glenn and he launched on an Atlas LV 3B rocket just down the road at Complex 14 in February 1962, so we're very excited to have Atlas back in the human spaceflight business. . also a return to service for our Centaur twin-engine configuration.

The twin-engine Centaur is uniquely qualified to provide the amount of thrust and type of flight profile needed to give Starliner a safe and smooth trip to the

international

space station. Also on Centaur we have added an emergency detection system which is a kind of complementary telemetry system that independently evaluates all the data on board the vehicle to ensure that the journey is as safe as possible for the astronauts when the time comes. We take safety very seriously, that's at the forefront of everything we do and adding that emergency detection system to the Centaur was just one more way to ensure astronauts get the safest ride possible when it comes time to launch them into space.

The next mission, a superior centaur. It is a specific vehicle adapter for cst, it is a frame and ring structure that basically attaches the

starliner

to the centaur and along with that is an aeroskirt that helps improve the aerodynamics and stability of the vehicle during flight, but it is not covered today Just to test the rocket, it's also an opportunity to demonstrate the processes and procedures that we're going to use when it comes time to load the crew aboard that spacecraft and we've been working on that this morning, so for now the big cru remains in the hands of the crew. access tower they are closing the clean room, as I understand the equipment is wrapped in the capsule.

You showed that video a few minutes ago of the hatch closing, so our team took over and prepared the crew access tower in the clean room. space for the launch uh that's it for the update here at the assoc, back to you at the kennedy space center, very good, thank you very much Dylan, now if you remember the space shuttle launches, you may remember that there were fewer rooms control, um, but this is a whole. new way of doing things and that's really the goal of the commercial crew program. Exactly today you have a commercial spacecraft launching on a commercial rocket and they both have their own control rooms and NASA is watching everything making sure everyone makes the right decisions. and that will be especially important when the crews are on board, so let's learn a little more about those commercial vehicles on the platform behind us today.

First, the Atlas 5 rocket manufactured and operated by United Launch Alliance. It is a battle rocket with 80 successful missions. To date this is a special version of Atlas made just for Starliner ula calls it N22 which means fairing without payload, two solid rocket motors and a twin engine Centaur upper stage, a first for the Atlas V and above the Atlas There is the Boeing CST 100. Starliner comes in two main sections, a crew module and a service module, the crew module is where the astronauts would be, it is reusable up to 10 times and has lightweight thermal protection as well as an innovative system landing system that uses parachutes and airbags that make Starliner the first American orbital capsule capable of landing on land.

The service module houses the majority of our propulsion systems, including the in-orbit maneuvering thrusters and our low-altitude abort engines. We also have a high efficiency solar panel on the bottom that covers a shield from micro meteorites and orbital debris. Now we want to check how that spacecraft is performing and we just happen to have one of the Starliner engineers, Torrey Pedrotti, she's at the Boeing launch control center monitoring the launch team there for us, Tori, how are things going? for the first BMCC mission? Good morning, Josh. and marie, everything is going very well here at the bmcc, as you said, this is the Boeing mission control center, this is the heart of Starliner while we are on the ground while we perform launch operations and then transition, we will pass control to Houston.

Here in Florida we are very excited and as you can see we have a lot of people connected to their consoles. Here now we have a lot of different teams in this control room, not just NASA teams and Boeing teams working together, but also analysts. Looking at all the different subsystems, including thermal propulsion, it dwarfs everything the spacecraft needs to continue on its mission to the international space station, so looking back at the rocket now you can see that we were talking a little bit about the equipment of the platform. This rig team was a joint ula and

boeing

team and this is only the second time we've had people near a fueled atlas v, so when you saw the hatch close and the clean room clear just a few minutes ago, That was only the second time in history that we've had people so close to an atlas 5 field.

The first time was during our wet dress rehearsal a few weeks ago. Now the wet dress rehearsal is where we fuel the vehicle and have everything follow all of our procedures except except the launch today, we're really excited to follow all of our procedures and the launch, so it's a really exciting day, um, and this team of platform and the views that we're seeing here in the white room are really just a hallmark. of human spaceflight, having people and being able to load people and cargo at the last minute is going to be really essential for our raw flights later on and often this orbital flight test that we do is unmanned, but we're really practicing like We would do it to make sure we are safe and ready when we have crew on board next time, so let's take a closer look at that pad team Melanie Weber is the leader of the pad team she is the first female team leader platform, Melanie, has worked for several years in the commercial crew program, but before that she worked on the ISS, so she knows not only about our vehicle, but also where we are going and a lot about the international space station.

Melanie is the crew and load leader and she has been in charge of the interior of the capsule since the beginning, so she was involved when there was nothing there and now she is and now she has designed the entire interior of the vehicle and has led the team to close it out so that's really exciting and it's a good day for her and it's a great day for the team as they leave the tower so back to you joshua marie very good thank you so much tori that's good news Starliner is looking great for launch, really good news, you know, the first time you do something, there are always unknown elements, but good news from the control rooms, so let's learn a little more about those control rooms and who leads those teams in those Starliner control rooms.

Today, the first launch driver for the BMCC Starliner is Lewis Atchison, a Florida native. Lewis has dreamed of working in spaceflight his entire life and has actually made some cuts in the astronaut selection process. As a launch driver, he directs pre-launch and ground operations. campaign and help the team resolve any issues that arise in the countdown and Lewis' counterpart in Houston Mission Control is Richard Jones Richard is a veteran NASA flight director assigned to Starliner on this uncrewed flight. team is completely responsible for commanding and controlling starliner known as flight in the control room, making all critical decisions during launch and climb.

He will hand it over to another flight control team for orbital operations, but will return for landing. Now these two teams must be perfectly synchronized before the launch and then during. flight the bmc will move into some sort of mission support room and they will stay at the console 24/7 during the flight and help the flight controllers in houston resolve any issues if they arise, that's right, we want to communicate with richard jones and his team at starliner mission control in houston there we have brandy dean from nasa and boeing steve seisloff monitoring the progress hi stephen brandy good morning welcome to starliner mission control in houston i'm steve seislov from boeing communications and i'm brandi dean from nasa public affairs and this is where richard jones and his team aretaking a close look at all starliner systems and subsystems this morning's launch it's time to put the starliner on a precise path, it will be time to uh when the launch site is there at Cape Canaveral it aligns with the 51 orbital plane, 6 degrees from the international space station, that's when Atlas 5 will take off and put Starliner right on the course it needs to chase the international space station and speaking of the international space station that's right down the hall here in mission control houston there is another flight control team watching the space station systems making sure it is ready for the starliner to arrive tomorrow that team is led by flight director chris edelen he is preparing to assemble his own team to make sure They are ready for today's launch and will be back on the console tomorrow for that date.

All of that is the culmination of years of preparation for the international space station and it will be primed and ready to see Starliner in space tomorrow. We'll keep an eye on things here in Houston, but for now we'll head back to Florida. Thanks Brandi and Steve, good news from all control rooms so things are looking good for launch. You know, that's really good news for an important first step. in this NASA partnership with Boeing that will help commercialize low Earth orbit, but NASA is also working on many other interesting things like its next big leap with the Artemis program and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is joining Daryl Nail from NASA.close by to talk about all the cool things we're working on right now hi daryl hi marie and joshua that's right, we're here on top of the OSB building, just a few feet from where you guys are, with a nice view of the Rocket Mr.

Bridenstine is here of course just put the big boss over all of NASA or just jim or just jim in this case, thanks for that, thanks, just tell me you've been here for the week, huh? what are you feeling now? and the excitement as it builds up to this launch, so I will tell you that the energy level here is truly amazing and this is not new at the Kennedy Space Center, but it certainly has been a long time since we flew. humans into space and this is one of those opportunities where we are meeting a critical milestone: an end-to-end test of one of our commercial crew vehicles.

I will tell you you know I was in the Orlando area years ago when the shuttles were getting ready to retire and the constellation program was on and then it was canceled uh this the Kennedy Space Center is back the business partners are doing amazing things there is a energy here that is just palpable so it feels really good to be here right now really good it was a difficult time at the time of the shuttle retirement and now it looks like we are getting ready to turn the corner the big question everyone wants to know is When will the astronauts travel? one of these spacecraft, so we have two different commercial crew providers, spacex and boeing, and I am sure that in the first part of 2020 we will have at least one successful launch with astronauts.

I would say that, actually, I'm We are sure that we will have two partners in the first part of 2020, but remember what the goal is: to have two independent solutions so that if one has a setback, the other can move forward, and that is why that they have a different redundancy and therefore this increases the probability of success so I would say we can expect the first part of 2020 and you told me that as a backup you have looked at buying seats on Soyuz absolutely and why We have to make sure that we don't have a gap between the Americans on the international space station.

The U.S.-Russia partnership has been strong since 1975. We want to keep it moving forward and we want to make sure that we know that even when commercial crew is successful, we want the Americans to launch Soyuz rockets and we want the Russians to launch commercial crew rockets. The partnership must be strong. Half of the international space station is Russian, so it's important to us as we maintain this partnership. make significant progress alright jim thanks for joining us enjoy today's launch thanks joshua marie we'll send it back to you guys thank you so much daryl and jim well last time we launched astronauts if you remember .

The United States went in 2011 and to restore that capability, as you heard them talk about NASA, they turned to private companies like Boeing to provide the ride and then NASA buys the ticket, so to speak, for our astronauts. That's right, this partnership is about openness. orbit and fostering new capabilities in commercial human spaceflight awaits terminal count stage two present for flight five four the purpose of the commercial crew program is to return to our nation the ability to take our astronauts to international space station three There is only two, one There is something about going to space that has always been special, so here we have the opportunity to return in a different type of ship takeoff.

The commercial crew program is revolutionary in the sense that it will give us the opportunity to have more astronauts in space. going to expand our knowledge capacity in a microgravity environment, the fact that we can partner with commercial industries allows us to fulfill that mission of being explorers because we can work together, there is a larger group of us that are dreaming that potentially could have done it . travel someday and work in space, people all over the world will be watching this because we are integrating new technologies that can make these spacecraft better and smarter and pave the way for the future.

It's truly an exciting time in spaceflight and we want you to get involved online and on social media if you want to learn more about Starliner, visit boeing.com starliner. We have more details about the vehicle and equipment, as well as some educational activities and we have something called next generation offshoot. website has learning activities for students of all grade levels, of course you can learn about everything related to business equipment on the main page of the program, you see all three on your screen and if you have a question you want answered, just go to Twitter and make sure to use the hashtag Asknasa.

In fact, we've already received some interesting questions. We want to answer one. I want to show you that we had one from Mark on Twitter. He was asking where Starliner will land after all this, so that's a Big Question, as we said earlier, Starliner will be the first American crewed orbital capsule that can land on land, so we have five landing sites in western The United States, wherever we land depends largely on where we are when we undock, so right now if we stay on schedule to land on the 28th. We will land at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

You can also follow us on Twitter at Boeing Space and Commercial Underscore Crew. Use the hashtag Starliner. Show us how you're seeing today's launch. and as we mentioned before, we are taking off from Cape Canaveral located on the east coast of Florida and now we are joined by a special guest who has a keen interest in what is happening here in the Sunshine State. Daryl Nail is with us again with Florida Governor Ron Desantis. That's right, Joshua, we're here with Governor Desantis. Thank you for joining us and taking the time. You are here for the launch.

You've been here for a few days. Did you take a tour? Well we just got back from the briefing which is very interesting and um this is an exciting day uh I would say get up early but it's not even bright yet it's really early but this is really cool I mean We really in Florida are proud of what's happening here at the Kennedy Space Center, we believe that this is the epicenter of all the new innovations in space, particularly the commercial and government partnerships, so we believe that this is going to be fantastic and then we hope to continue doing this and get American astronauts back into space and eventually into space.

Luna, do you remember here in Florida the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2011? That shook the state for a while, especially here on the Space Coast. What a great moment! Jim Bridenstine, the national administrator, and I were elected to Congress in 2012. My district. it was just north of here starting in volusia county so we had a lot of people that would work here that lived in that district in the southern part of the district and you could tell it was a um, you know, really bad time for here and it was almost like you know we were so proud of everything that's happening here it's like what's happening well I think you know now we're back with a vengeance so it's really exciting to see the direction this is going you see a turn. corner and become commercial, would you travel in one of these spaceships?

I think it would depend on the circumstances and everything, but I think it would be more of a liability than anything else for them, so I don't know if they would do it. I want it to be there, well I mean you know these people really know what they're doing so you know they're on autopilot now so if you decide you want to change your mind let us know governor thank you very much. Thank you very much, enjoy the launch, we appreciate it, we'll send it back to you, thank you both, we're definitely back in a big way and now, about 44 minutes away from the launch, we want to take another look at the launch.

The 41 Starliner complex sitting atop Atlas 5 is getting closer to takeoff. Today's orbital flight test is our dress rehearsal for launching astronauts. Boeing is proud to send veteran space shuttle astronaut Chris Ferguson on our next launch. The crew test flight to the Ferguson International Space Station. He will join NASA astronaut Mike Fink, who is no stranger to the space station and believes he served on two long-duration flights as its science officer and commander and flew on the final space shuttle Endeavor mission. Now the third member of the crew is NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and the Boeing crew.

The flight test will be their first trip to space. The trio has been training for every aspect of the mission together, learning the Starliner systems and preparing for life and work aboard the International Space Station where the crew could stay up to six months. been training for routine and emergency operations on the ground and in flight, but note that Starliner will not be empty for this flight; It's filled with almost 600 pounds of NASA cargo and we also have an anthropometric testing device that will teach us a lot about what this journey will be like for the astronauts.

Meet Rosie. She is the commander of the Starliner for this first mission. We named her after Rosie the Riveter, an icon who inspired generations of women to join the aerospace industry. Rosie the rocketeer is flying for everyone on our team. she who took on the challenge of human spaceflight and said we can do it. Her flight is not just symbolic. She has 15 sensors that will collect valuable data that we will use to make sure future astronauts stay safe and healthy on Starliner. a buddy with her there you see snoopy he gets another chance to go to space snoopy has a long history with nasa dating back to the apollo program when we sent astronauts to the moon and now snoopy is part of the next human era space flight with commercial crew and NASA's Artemis program, he also has an important job as our gravity indicator, so when Starliner reaches microgravity, it will begin to float out of the pilot's seat.

Now Rosie and Snoopy will definitely need help flying Starliner. They come from Starliner's autonomous flight systems and will depend on that to get to the station and back, but ground teams will also monitor and intervene if necessary, so we want to verify the people who will be commanding Starliner from here on the earth. stephen brandy how are things going in houston? thanks marie things are moving towards the recap on the pre-launch checklist today the team here at mission control is now tracking 41 minutes before lunch and they are working through that checklist making sure they are ready to take the control of Starliner once it takes off from the launch pad today, flight director Richard Jones and the Starliner mission control team will finally be able to put to work all the skills they've done in flight simulations. exhaustive flight.

In recent months they have already been sending some commands to Starliner for things like cabin pressurization and communications checks and as soon as theStarliner spacecraft lifts off from the launch pad, this group of spaceflight specialists will watch closely and issue commands when necessary to keep the vehicle on its precise path to the international space station and another group that is watching closely today are, of course , the astronauts who will make the first flight on Starliner when we do it again in early 2020. That is, of course, NASA astronaut Mike. fink and nasa astronaut nicole mann along with boeing astronaut chris ferguson are at the cape watching today's launch from the control centers, but we had a chance to sit down and talk with them a little beforehand to get their thoughts on this crude new American spaceship, in 10 or 15 years there will be more than one space station, in fact, when we say, oh, the space station, people will say whatever you want and that will be really cool, we will have people.

That's going to be possible for ordinary people, ordinary scientists and engineers, even people with tourists, can buy a ticket to go see the space stations in orbit, we are going to make new things that will improve life. on planet Earth and there is a uniquely large opportunity for our country, the United States, to establish these industries in low Earth orbit to improve life on planet Earth and continue the engine of our high-tech economy. I don't think astronauts are as famous today as they used to be nor do I think they should be if everyone who flew into space became infinitely famous then we won't make it available to anyone, so when we get on a plane that knows the name of the captain of the airliner no one knows the cockpit of the airliner and if spaceflight is ever going to be as common as we would like it to be, astronauts are just pilots who take people from one place to another, it really will be this combined effort, probably with multiple commercial industries working together alongside the government and I think that's how we'll see the future of space exploration, you know, to the moon and then eventually to Mars, you know, we don't have, we couldn't sustaining that kind of exploration without commercial industry um and really a lot of this is up to us the people, right, you need the people, you need the ideas and you need those people coming in and it's good to have a little bit of that commercial competition, ya It keeps everyone going and moving towards a goal, it's always great to hear from the crew members themselves, they are going to get a front row seat on future human spaceflight and what an exciting future it is, for anyone who wants to work in manned space flights, especially all. the young people watching today exactly, but first we have this critical uncrewed flight test, which is an important step in the journey to launch American astronauts from American soil and NASA will use the data from this test flight to help certify the systems to transport astronauts that we have just heard about.

We're about 38 minutes away from launch, so we want to check out Rocket Dylan, what's the latest you're hearing from the partnership. Hey, things are still going very well here at the association. We have received the report that all the ground crews have cleared the equipment access tower, moved a safe distance from the platform to a roadblock on the beach road, so things are going very well here . We have a weather update planned for about eight. minutes at least 30 minutes uh I'm not expecting any surprises although we've had a couple of breezy days the weather is still very favorable for an on time launch today so we're waiting for that final weather report and the team here is just to continue focused but very excited.

The mood here, as discussed above, is truly electric. The team is very excited to be getting closer to launch and we are looking forward to that t0. at 636, here in a bit, josh murray, thanks dylan, I know from all of you at ula, today is not something that new, they have over 130 successful launches under their belt, that's why Boeing chose the launch, they chose atlas to launch starliner because when we were deciding on a launch vehicle, ula was boeing's obvious choice when talking about launching people, safety and reliability are the highest priorities, one of the design parameters of the spacecraft since the principle was for the launch vehicle to be independent o In order to transition from one launch vehicle to another without a significant amount of design changes to the spacecraft for the first flights of the Starliner, we selected the Atlas 5 due to its unparalleled safety and mission guarantee, long-term success in this market.

It will be driven by customer trust, security and reliability. Every aspect of our spacecraft and systems has been designed with that as the primary goal. Now ula has launched NASA science missions to almost every planet in the solar system, but this is the first time. They are tasked with launching astronauts, it is a very special mission for everyone involved and it has taken years to get here, but let's take a look at the hard work that went into the last few months to get these vehicles ready for today. See, Atlas 5 being stacked at the vertical integration facility, this operation took place on November 4th, and this was in preparation for a long Starliner to be deployed and placed on top so you can see the different rocket stages. hoisted into position there and there's a Starliner in front of our commercial crew and cargo processing facility, it's essentially a former space shuttle garage and there it's taxiing in front of the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building here at the Kennedy Space Center.

This release was on November 21st. About six miles out to the launch pad, we got some beautiful drone footage from that day. I love these shots. It was a beautiful day with a spaceship rolling along the beach. You know, it's a site that you can really only see here at the Kennedy Space Center. There it goes down the beach road, approaching that vertical integration facility, it will be picked up by a crane and integrated with the rocket, which actually only takes a couple of hours. It's pretty impressive how quickly our teams can work on this and then from there it was done. to be taken to the pad because I know Tori talked before that wet dress rehearsal with the fueled rocket that was the integrated launch test day for all the teams to practice one last time before today exactly there it is taxiing for that test and Most of that video covers the last few months as we were preparing for launch, but it doesn't really even scratch the surface of all the hard work that has gone into so many people to prepare Starliner for today, but we are finally here today, so coming back to the bmcc to see how starliner is doing tori our launch team our launch team is tracking any issues at the moment hi josh uh here at the bmcc we are not tracking any issues looks like everything is set up and ready for a good and clean launch here uh at the ksc now uh you can see that the people in the room here are really tied to the data that's coming in and all of these teams are really just looking at a bunch of data that's coming out of the rocket in real time Right now to making sure everything we see is well inside the envelopes for a safe and successful flight, everything looks great here at the bmcc, so back to you Joshua Marie.

Alright, thank you very much, Tori, we want to show you a closer look at those beautiful ones. Views of Starliner and Atlas 5 at Space Launch Complex 41. You can see it right behind us. Yes, we're about 33 minutes away from launch, so let's take a look at what the launch and established phases of the Starliner mission will look like today. The mission begins at t minus zero with liftoff after the Atlas V booster motors extinguish life and send the vehicle skyward shortly after at t plus 12 seconds, the rocket begins the roll program by placing the crew in a position with head down to help with acceleration forces and 35 seconds, the rocket's two solid boosters run out of fuel and burn up in less than a minute.

Later, at plus 222 they separate from the booster, the main engine remains on for almost two more minutes, then at plus 429 , the booster or biko engine is shut down, six seconds later the booster stage separates and six seconds later so does the ascent deck on top of the starliner. At plus 4 minutes and 45 seconds the Centaur upper stage ignites pushing Starliner to near orbital speeds and then at plus 505 the aeroskirt breaks up as Starliner and Centaur are free of the atmosphere and no longer need that aerodynamic support after a long push of more than six minutes from the main centaur.

Engine cutoff or miko occurs at more 11 54. Then, when Centaur successfully separates almost 15 minutes after launch, the rocket's job is done, but Starliner is still not in orbit after a long coast of 16 minutes and 31 minutes after launch, Starliner turns on four of its a. face the omak engines for orbital insertion and the ascent profile is complete, it will definitely be an exciting climb, but before the rocket is declared ready for launch, some teams must report readiness in some upcoming surveys just before the launch vehicle probes Starliner control. The rooms are ready first. Both teams in Florida and Houston are getting ready to report, so let's head back to Houston to see how they're doing.

Steve. How's mission control? Thanks, Josh. Everything looks very exciting there in Florida. Richard Jones will be surveying his team. In just a few minutes, this is the last chance for him to get the go-ahead from his team of systems specialists and then he'll use that survey to inform his own decision to come and go for the subsequent release driver survey that will set the stage. to get out of the terminal count and meanwhile in space the crew of the international space station is waiting for today's launch they are also commander luca parmitano of the european space agency isa nasa flight engineers christina cook jessica mear and andrew morgan and engineers Roscosmos flight officers Oleg Skropochka and Alex Kortsov will be waiting aboard the space station for Starliner's arrival tomorrow, but Mir and Cook have a particularly crucial role to play in that rendezvous, sending commands to the Starliner vehicle helping with some of the demonstrations to ensure that it will be able to meet safely, so this will be the next, the next big milestone as we count down to 20 years of continued human presence in space, the international space station, a laboratory the size of a football field of a million pounds flying. around planet Earth at 17,500 miles per hour is our home in low Earth orbit and the bridge to exploring the far reaches of our solar system a place to learn what it takes to live, work and thrive in space thanks to the agencies spacecraft representing more than a dozen countries around the world went from drawing board to liftoff when the first piece flew into space in 1998, kicking off more than a decade of construction, transporting the station into orbit piece by piece on NASA's space shuttle and Russian rockets and after the first crew arrived in November 2000.

We began an unbroken streak of humans living and working in space building on the legacy of past outposts like Skylab and Mir. The international space station became the training ground for humanity's next great voyages, learning how to live in space during extreme periods. of time building and perfecting the technologies necessary to travel to our neighbors in the solar system, gave us a place right around the corner to prepare for the next giant leap into the unknown and thanks to the station a new era is unfolding in outer space. Once the exclusive domain of nations and governments and now populated by a growing space fleet of American industry, private spacecraft to transport cargo and crew members, new habitats and technologies for future space missions and an open door for companies, research institutions and even students from around the world. doing research in space that has never before had the opportunity to lay the foundation for a strong economy in space.

There have been thousands of experiments, hundreds of spacewalks, endless hours of challenges and successes, all performed by humans from countries ofeveryone. The international space. season is what we can achieve as a planet when we come together to do the things that are difficult and the work does not slow down because we are ready for the next giant leap because we are ready to go further because what we do and learn along the way It is for the benefit of all humanity and you really get an idea of ​​the importance of research and the benefit of the international space station every day the astronauts who live there doing their experiments there is no place like space to test the systems that the astronauts will rely on when they go to the moon and Mars, and of course before we make those flights we have to make them, including transporting a few hundred pounds of cargo to the international space station, including the food that will be brought up as a kind of aid package for the crew that is up there and will also carry flags, coins and the illustrious silver snoopys and you know, one of the phrases that is heard a lot in manned space flights is standing on the shoulders of giants and that basically represents the work that our predecessors have done to make this space program so successful and the work that everyone does every day to achieve these wonderful missions, so items like these, like the flags that are often used to commemorate and uh tokens like silver snoopies give us the opportunity to thank Boeing and NASA the workforce that puts everything that goes into these flights.

That's right, it's all the more reason to be excited about Starliner taking off today so we can get some Meanwhile, that fun cargo came back after landing, although the flight control team here in Houston just gave Richard Jones the all-clear for launch, so everything is moving forward just in time and now we'll hand it back to Marie and Josh. Well, thanks Steven. brandy um, it's great to see you there at mission control in Houston for what will soon be team launches again and josh, I know you and we both know the people behind the scenes, how many people involved and how much time and effort they've put in .

They put their hearts and souls into this. You know, it gave me chills to hear that mission control is over and I know the people sitting at the console. You know they're focused on their data, but it's a very emotional day for them. Still, yes, so we want. to go to dylan now at the asoc for a quick status check dylan, how are you doing? Hi marie, we continue to have a very very clean countdown here, the team is working without problems. Just a few moments ago we heard about the launch. weather officer jessica williams and got a weather report that is as good as you get from jessica and the launch weather team at the 40th space wing, 45th space wing, clear skies, we're going with all the constraints with only a chance of 10 violation for uh for onshore winds, but those winds are well below our limitations, so we're not looking for weather issues this morning.

You know, one of the big differences between our countdown today compared to the countdowns we run for our other missions. is the duration of this final built-in wait. Generally our final built-in wait is 15 or 30 minutes and that depends on our launch window, but the built-in hole in the built-in hole we are on. that is going to be used for commercial crew missions is four hours and during that time is the time that the Boeing team comes back and finishes loading that cargo into the Starliner and that is when they launch or load the astronauts as well. all the processes that the team has checked today, of course, all of that is finished and done, so the remaining work ahead of us here is that we are going to shut down our hydraulic and propeller systems and configure them for flight.

The avionics team will take the final upper level wind data and upload it to our avionics system so the rocket can properly steer through the atmosphere with the upper level winds. Some communication checks will be completed between the lcc here, mission control in Houston. Bmcc over the Kennedy Space Center and eventually that communications check will include the astronauts as well. We will retract the crew access arm and then move on.in our final survey for launch josh marie that's the assoc update thanks dylan that's really as good a forecast as can be expected fingers crossed that mother nature continue to cooperate absolutely and in the meantime, mission teams across the country continue to prepare for flight now.

In the event of a ground emergency, NASA's Steve Payne is on standby at the emergency operations center. He's the guy you hope you never have to call, but you'll be glad he's there if you do in an emergency. Steve would coordinate all resources. site to make sure we all get out safely and in denver the ula balor team led by lars onsiger is preparing for the climb lars and his team are only at the ula console during the starliner flights they are specifically looking for anything that can go wrong on ascent and we will transmit data to mission control to be prepared for an abort today it is just a practice for them since our abort system is not active and there is no crew on board for the entire program.

We've been answering your questions about starliner on social media that's right and we want to take uh we have a really cool photo of a Starliner super fan looking at it from across the pond in Ireland uh of course he didn't have to get up so early because I think it's already morning there, but um hayden Thank you so much for submitting your photo and please, if you're watching, follow us, use the hashtag, ask NASA, show us how you're watching today's launch. Hey, I hope you see a good launch today and as the mission teams prepare for the finals. parts, oh sorry, we have a question, uh, stemcore wants to know about the new Boeing blue spacesuit design and the materials used, so it's made of nomex, which is kind of the standard for a lot of spacesuits, um , because it's fire resistant, so it would keep astronauts safe if something goes wrong, but we added a lot of innovations on top of what the shuttle suit did.

I think Chris Ferguson's favorite is that he has a hooded type of seal, so it's a soft hood that you can't wear. I don't have this heavy helmet on, but otherwise it has touch screen sensitive gloves, more comfortable shoes that were made by Reebok, and you know, overall a much lighter and more comfortable suit for the astronauts, we'll see them debut the Next time. Starliner flies, so as the mission teams prepare for the final parts of the countdown, we want to hear from some of the people who have been working so hard to get this new spacecraft to this point.

Building a spaceship is difficult, this entire team has gone through high times. and lows to get here, but being so close to the flight is an emotional moment for everyone on our team, so let's hear from some of the people who have spent years pouring their hearts into making Starliner, if I'm not 100% involved all the days. putting I'm sorry I'm getting emotional some of us if something's not right then you know we're not going to sleep that night you know what I mean if something's not right I'm not going to sleep so let's get it straight you're not just carrying fulfill the dreams of a particular company, an agency, but of the entire world, both Boeing and NASA are doing something right now, not just for the benefit of a private company like Boeing, not just for an agency like NASA, They are doing this in the name of the nation for the benefit of humanity, this is a human spaceflight, we have people, we have teammates and colleagues who are going to fly in this vehicle, we must make sure that we get them there safely and let's recover safe and sound.

I always fly it if I can. None of this makes sense for commercial human spaceflight if we don't make sure our crew is safe. Nobody understands this. I don't. I think someone really outside of this business understands what we're doing. These spaceships are hand built from scratch and we don't even use power tools on any small parts, it means something important, you don't know what you don't know and it's just a lesson learned and keep your eyes and ears open everyone watch each other you have to you can't make mistakes there's no room for error I've heard people say would you make that decision with Chris's wife in the room and the answer is always, you have to put in 110 percent every day, you know, and taking time from our families to make sure he can come home.

Our grass is long at home and our kids are looking for us, but I'm building a spaceship to go back to a spaceship I already made. You can't modify something when you're up there. You can only do it once. I know what I've done is a job. Pretty good, I may not ride in it, but I'm right there with them. The launch will be a big day, but that's just the beginning for us when we see it land and everyone is safe. That's really going to be when we high-five now, some of those people are sitting.

The bmccs you're watching right now on the console should be about to enter their final survey and Boeing launch teams have reported from the control room on hardware readiness that indicated Starliner is ready for that count. terminals and Tory has been monitoring your progress tori, how are the final Starliner polls going? Thanks, Josh. The beggining. Starliner's final surveys are going excellent. In fact, we just heard all the engineering teams take their final survey and say they're ready to launch, so everything. here outside the bmcc it looks great we have everyone really involved and ready for that terminal count now we have a message for you at the house from the woman who named rosie the riveter hello everyone, I'm leanne corett, I'm I'm delighted to be here today at the Kennedy Space Center visitor complex inside the Astronaut Hall of Fame, surrounded by the heroes and legends who have inspired the work we are doing here today.

My parents met while working on the Saturn V program and I was born right Here on Florida's Space Coast, like many of you, I am inspired by the wonder of space exploration and it is humbling to be a part of this moment in history . We are very proud that Starliner is the first human spacecraft built and launched right here. In Florida, thanks to all the teams across the country and as far away as Australia who designed, built and tested Starliner, and thanks to NASA. We have been proud partners of NASA since the early days of space exploration and I can't wait to see what we will accomplish together in the years to come.

I want you to know that space is not the last frontier, it's just the next one thanks to Starliner getting there. it will be safe, efficient and achievable thank you for watching our show and enjoying the launch now Leanne is probably one of the most excited people about this every time you talk to the space about her her eyes just light up so we are all hoping for a great launch . In fact, we just received confirmation that they are configuring Starliner for the terminal count that we all are. go right now if you're just joining us, we're minutes away from the first Starliner launch attempt and ula will be preparing soon to begin their survey to enter the terminal count right now, we're about 16 minutes away from liftoff. a critical point in the countdown after the shot clock resets to t minus four minutes if another hold is requested we will clean up for day one. static checks continue with the terminal count. propulsion atlas systems. come on lo2 lh2 come on you have gas come on electrical systems in the air let's go to ground let's go anomaly coordinator AC range chief ready to continue launch director director flash is ready and you have permission to launch now we have a few minutes to answer more of your questions about starliner we have one from Ingram wants to know that you have some concerns about the weight, obviously, so how do you take into account the weight of the paint used on Starliner?

Of course, every pound matters on a spaceship and that's why we don't use too much paint that we don't use. You don't have to, if you can, you know, on the vehicle there are some style paints, uh, the NASA logo, the Boeing logo, those kind of cool markings around the top, but that's the only paint you know that Starliner doesn't need. The gray paint coating is actually there for thermal properties. You might remember if you've been following Starliner for a while. It used to be white, but as we continued our analysis we decided that gray would be a little better and safer on re-entry, so we covered.

Use it with this gray paintspecial that is very heat resistant, yeah, I mean, you can see it well, obviously it's very early in the morning, the sun hasn't risen yet, but you can notice that kind of color on the capsule on the top of the rocket on the pad, yes exactly, it's actually using thermal blankets, the gray part is thermal blankets that you may remember from the space shuttle and the little black parts are thermal tiles also from the space shuttle, but we have a new one. Heat shield on the bottom I think we have time for one more question, so we also have another interesting question about G forces.

Moonman wanted to ask about the maximum loads expected during ascent and then the throttle will be reduced to maintain. those lower gs so that's actually a great question, ula is flying on a trajectory unique to us, it's going to fly flatter like the moon man said and the thruster will actually slow down the acceleration during the later stages of the flight , uh, to maintain three and a half g. about the crew members, I want, oh, the crew access arm is about to retract, I thought it was retracting there, but yeah, so Atlas will fly a little bit different flight than we normally use today, but three and a half g is not uncomfortable. for the crew it's safe for them uh chris ferguson has described it it still feels like a gorilla sitting on your chest but that's a colorful description it's normal for most launches and we want you to keep asking those questions thanks for all the great questions just remember to use Ask NASA and now we're keeping an eye on space launch complex 41 waiting for the crew access arm to start retracting and when that happens we'll start to see the arms move away we'll see.

The clean room is slowly receding from the atlas and that will be one of the last visible things we see before launch, so up to this point, if there was crew on board, just before the crew access arm moves, it is where we would configure the launch abort system. We'll see it slowly drift away, but it can actually return to the capsule in less than 20 seconds for a less urgent emergency, like if a thunderstorm was coming and the crew had to leave. off the platform, but actually after that access arm goes away, if they need to get off, they'll go on the Starliner and Josh, you mentioned the abort system.

I know it's not active on this flight. Can you help explain to people why? Yes, Ula has this new emergency detection system on top of her centaur upper stage. They're basically two additional computers that are connected to the rest of the rocket and are just making sure that system works. I don't want to cause an early abort since it's the first time that system is in the atlas, but you know the system is looking for what's called a rapid trigger abort, so it's something that's going to happen so quickly that a human wouldn't. I would. able to detect it and we will see that of course it will be activated the next time Starliner flies, that next flight will be called the crew flight test and it will carry Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson, NASA astronauts Mike. fink and nicole mann and next time they'll be sitting right on top of that atlas, they'll be living inside Starliner, but for today, of course, we have Rosie inside Snoopy inside um and 600 pounds of NASA cargo and we're just a little further away. 11 minutes. since launch now again we are waiting because we want to make sure you can see live that access arm for the crew moving out so we are keeping an eye on things for you there you can see the centaur letting off steam that is completely normal for these. launch is very cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen that are in that fuel tank and as they heat up they start to expand and vent the top there oh check for the crew to access the arm for launch, ready we just heard the call of They are ready to save that access arm for the crew.

We also have confirmation that Starliner is running on internal power and no longer depends on ground power, drawing power from its own batteries. If you are just joining us, we are just over 10 minutes away. of takeoff and That's it, there it is, it seems that the crew access arm is beginning to move away from the Starliner. You can see the white room slightly starting to spin again. This is one of the last important steps. Next is the launch vehicle. survey then we will release the four minute hold and then provide gst-100 with verified internal power now as the crew access arm retracts again the last pull today is the launch vehicle pull if you have seen Atlas launches, that's how it will be.

It sounds very familiar, there is a big old piston that pulls back the crew access arm and after Atlas is declared ready for launch, NASA and Boeing will jointly decide if they are going to go forward with the countdown again, about nine minutes from launch, and there it is. You see the crew access arm is finishing moving away from the Atlas V rocket and the Starliner and we want to reach out to Dylan Rice at ASOC for a status update, Dylan, hey Marie, so we'll continue to have a very clean countdown here. We are just moments away from Chief Release Director Doug Libo conducting the Terminal Account Health Check Survey which will lead us to our final countdown to watch the Terminal Account Health Check Survey is the final check of each operator, the operators associated with the ground systems, the launch vehicle, the spacecraft and the eastern ridge to ensure that all systems are ready so that we can proceed to a terminal count and obtain the rocket was released, so we're just a minute away from that.

Now I can tell you that you know we've run this countdown many times for a variety of different missions, but today's countdown feels a little different than it did. normally we have, the excitement here is just incredible and we are, we are very, very, very, very excited to see this, to see this mission come and go on time, especially with as clean a countdown as we've had today. We are really looking forward to this. The team hasn't been talking about any issues on any of the other networks I've been listening to, so when the terminal account status check begins, we're waiting.

It's heard across the board, so I think we'll stay here and listen to the lead launch driver, Doug Libo, start that pole here in about 20 seconds. I think we will check the status to continue with the terminal count, the atlas propulsion systems. hydraulic ir pneumatic ir lo2 ir water ir centaur systems ir propulsion pneumatic ir lo2 ir lh2 ir gas ir airborne electrical systems ir ground fill facility ir rffts ir flight control ir cube ir operational support ir com ir umbilical ir control arm go ecs go red line monitor go quality go to operations safety manager go to ula safety officer go to vehicle systems engineer go to anomaly chief go to scope coordinator clear to continue flight director why va launch director ld is go and lc is cleared to launch proceed with count alc verify t0 is set for 11 two points 36 two points 43 zulu verified good josh marie did you hear it we are going to launch just in time okay thanks dylan yes we heard some applause behind us at the press site when we hear that you have permission to launch um and I know they feel good about that at the Boeing mission control center.

Tori is standing there and we hear that she has a very special guest to greet. Thank you Marie. Yes, I have a very special guest here today. I have Chris Ferguson. first Boeing astronaut and former formal commander of the space shuttle so Chris, you heard the survey that you participated in, you're here, you know, being a part of some of the other surveys this morning, can you tell us how it's going? Well, every release has its exciting moments. We've had a few before with a minor issue that came up, but we've developed all the fundamentals needed to fly and you just listen to the survey, basically everyone is online and agrees that we're in a good setup to fly. so uh, uh, it was a little close, but hey, we're going to hit the races here in a few minutes.

I know this is a really exciting time, with less than five minutes until launch. I know it's funny when we say we're less than five minutes away from launch, but I know you've been on the show for about eight years, so I know all of this has been leading up to this moment and the CFT, can you? Tell us a little more about your role within the Starliner program. I joined the program, as you said, eight years ago, shortly after the space shuttle program ended. It has been wonderful to be part of the team. It's been wonderful to have him. some influence on the design and now you know it's almost surreal that it's on the platform, you know that the work of the last eight and a half years is coming to an end, you know, it's game day, right?

The test is and keep in mind that you know our big game for the spaceship actually starts when the launch vehicle launches it in 11 minutes, so we have a lot of work to do even though this is the exciting part that everyone they enjoy watching. The launch, our big test really begins when the launch vehicle releases us and we have to go, you know, do all the necessary demonstrations to prepare to dock with the international space station tomorrow, so we're going to have a busy 24 hours, yeah, Chris. That's really exciting, right, it's busy, but I know the teams here are up for the challenge, absolutely fine, Josh Marie, thank you for coming to us.

It was great listening to Chris. We are three minutes and 20 seconds away from t-minus. The four minute wait was released while Chris was telling us how excited he is for Starliner, so let's calm down by listening to the loops. I want to point out that on the ascent, because we have so many control rooms, you will hear reports from the JSC Atlas space flight operations center and Marie and I will stay ensuring ls2 surpassing the atlas thanks to the flight pressure 2 minutes 50 seconds internal feet two and a half minutes the atlas tanks are at flight levels centaur will be momentarily if you just joined we are approaching two minutes from the first flight of boeing's cst cst-100 starliner to the international space station 159 internal vehicle 155 start 150 to transport centaur lh2 securing the center lo2 there is the rocket now with internal power, as well as atlas and the launch of our tanks enabled 137 feet armed that was the flight termination software with atlas sights off course 120 oc is armed that is the count started eds ascent mode that was the eds emergency detection system t minus one minute rock report status range green range 54 b.o.p started 30 seconds t-minus 25 seconds status check go atlas go centaur go starliner go to starliner ten nine eight seven six five four three two one and we take off the rise of starliner and a new era in human space now ten seconds after flying people have begun the launch about the program, the body speed responses are seen good, 15 seconds have come, control party money looks good, not available, rd180 engine operating parameters continue to look good, vehicles now passing max q, maximum chamber pressures dynamic pressure on both srvs continue to look good, rd180 engine operating parameters.

It also continues to look good now that one minute into the flight passes and Mach 1 Atlas 5 is now supersonic and the vehicle is now accelerating. Engine response seems good. Chamber pressure continues in both srvs at one minute and 20 seconds into the flight. Body velocity responses in the vehicle look good. One minute and 30 seconds on hold for study burnout and we have burnout on both solid rocket boosters. The atlas will hold the srbs for an additional 48 seconds before discarding it. The rd-180 has returned to full power as the expected engine response seems good. one minute 50 seconds on the atlas is now 17 miles altitude 11 and a half miles downrange distance traveling at 2,300 miles per hour now passing two minutes into the flight the rd-180 engine operating parameters continue to look good at full thrust and at two minutes 11 After a few seconds of flight, the Atlas rocket now weighs only half of what it weighed at launch, burning propellant at a rate of 2,800 pounds per second and we have seen good indications that both rocket booster vehicles solids have been discarded and have passed into the closed-loop guide.

There are less than two minutes left in the boost phase of the flight. Two minutes and 35 seconds of flight. The rd-180 continues to perform well. The engine is now deceleratingslightly. Engine response seems good and the Atlas 5 now travels at more than five times the speed of the Centaur's reaction control system. now pressurizing to flight levels system response seems good 3 minutes 10 seconds in flight atlas 5 now at 38 miles altitude 80 miles range traveling at 5,800 miles per hour engine operating parameters rd- 180 continue to look good now with one minute remaining The body's velocity responses to engine cut-off continue to look good during the boost phase of flight and the rd-180 is now accelerating to maintain a constant 3.5g acceleration limit.

The engine responses will look good at 3 minutes and 55 seconds into the flight and the centaur has begun the boost phase. 20 second descent sequence to keep the biko rd-180 looking good while accelerating to maintain that constant 3.5g acceleration limit. the atlas pu has gone into open circuit in preparation for beco and in standby for beco and we have the beco booster motor cutout in standby for stage separation and we have a good indication of the stage separation we have prestart on the rl10 backing up for ignition we have ignition and full thrust on both rl10 engines chamber pressures look good on both engines we have confirmation of the debris covered odor on the skirt of the starliner scrap and we have a good indication of the aeroscore scrap as we are now resuming the active attitude control after a successful aeroskir.

The discard chamber pressures on both rl10 engines continue to look good. This was a very critical part of the mission here. Staging is always a very dynamic part of the flight step. Five minutes and 30 seconds into the flight and the Centaur RCS system is beginning initial firing of the thrusters for the thermal conditioning system. The system response looks good now, once again the centaur will continue to burn for about five more minutes. now six minutes into the flight and the centaur is now at 95 miles altitude 570 miles downrange distance traveling at 12,000 miles per hour those dual rl10 engines continue to propel the starliner they are offsetting the booster a bit by flying on a flatter trajectory and with lower thrust again to maintain those three and a half g forces again a first flight for the twin engine centaur in an atlas v starliner and the centaur continues heading into orbit during the centaur burn.

Wood pressures have remained very stable. There are now just under five minutes left in the burn and the centaur is now 102 miles up and 800 miles down. The distance traveled at 12,700 miles per hour and the Centaur thruster utilization system continuing with active control seems good. The body frequency responses are all very close to zero, meaning Atlas is flying almost exactly where it needs to be. Now spend eight minutes flying if you are. Just joining us eight minutes after the first Starliner flight, we have undergone a successful booster stage separation. The centaur continues to power Starliner. The next important milestone will be the shutdown of the main engine at 11 minutes and 58 seconds.

Both Centaur rl10 engines continue to run well throughout the Combustion chamber pressures look good and now, nine minutes into the flight, the Centaur is 101 miles altitude, 1,200 miles down, traveling at 14,300 miles per hour. Now the two control rooms you're looking at on the left are ula's Denver operations control. Center, they are a backup control room for the control room on the right, which is the Atlas spaceflight operations center. They were the ones who launched the rocket about nine and a half minutes ago, as you can see, everyone is focused on their screens monitoring. You may have noticed that there wasn't much excitement during the launch, but ula will be happy once we get to the stage separation, which will occur almost 15 minutes after launch, so within five minutes the performance of the centaur system will remain nominal throughout this process and will continue.

We see stable values ​​in our fuel and oxidizer tank pressures, main vehicle battery temperatures and pressures, and continue to see good pressures in our helium and hydrazine storage bottles. The quality of the telemetry has been good throughout this process, only very brief minor interruptions are observed and now there is approximately one minute left to burn it once more after starliner separates from the centaur in about four minutes starliner will circle its orbit with a orbital insertion burn again about 30 seconds until the main engine cuts out the chamber pressures in both rl10 continue to look good now before the main engine cut out.

We are seeing good tank pressure on the Starliner. The batteries are at a nominal temperature. Good pressure sensor readings from the Starliner as it prepares to fly free for the first time in orbit awaiting main engine cutout and we have body speed responses from Miko's main engine cutout. very stable now spends 12 minutes of flight now starliner will remain attached to centaur again until approximately 15 minutes it is expected to separate at 14 minutes and 58 seconds after takeoff and that will be the first time that starliner flies freely in orbit and at that point Richard Jones and his team in Houston will have full control over the vehicle and will configure it for an orbital insertion that will take place 16 minutes after separation.

There are now approximately two minutes left until capsule separation body velocity responses continue to appear very stable all along this coast. so you're looking at the Boeing mission control center there, at this point they've transitioned to a mission support room, the people you're seeing sitting at the console, designed, tested and built, are the experts in the systems, so if the flight controllers need any help, they will be the ones to answer the call passing 30 seconds of flight in just over a minute, we expect to hear that Starliner has separated from the vehicle and now there is approximately a minute left until the separating body accelerates in the inclination angle in the yaw direction. all very close to null and about 30 seconds from spacecraft application, now awaiting spacecraft separation and we have good indications of frequent capsule separation.

There it is, ula has successfully completed her part of the mission. Starliner is flying freely for the first time. in space from here mission controllers from the Johnson Space Center will fly Starliner, we will hear reports exclusively from there and the Starliner software has been switched to orbit mode, which means the spacecraft is executing the commands it needs to operate in space following a successful launch into orbit on the orbital trajectory, this is just one step flight controllers are taking to configure Starliner now that it's flying on its own. Flight controllers are preparing for orbital insertion which will take place in about 15 minutes, just over 15 minutes, and that will circle Starliner's trajectory. orbit as it gets underway to pursue the international space station, the team here is also turning off several systems that were necessary for powered flight but are not needed now that Starliner is in orbit while some are off, others will turn on, such as the casings of the thrusters that will be used to maneuver Starliner in space and the solar panels that the thrusters will steer Starliner.

Through orbit and the solar panels will, of course, convert the sun's energy into electrical energy to charge the spacecraft's batteries, the centaur has intentionally left Starliner on an elliptical trajectory that would facilitate the spacecraft's return and , more importantly, of its future crews. Earth at this point if there was a problem, but that means it's all on Starliner to get the rest of the way to a stable orbit and on the way to the space station. This is where Starliner's orbital maneuvering and attitude control engines come into play. 20 engines can each provide up to 1,400 pounds of thrust, which is more than enough to put Starliner into orbit with the final leg.

They will fire for about 40 seconds and put Starliner on the right path to not only dock with the space station but also. a series of demonstrations that starliner will perform before docking and those demonstrations will demonstrate that starliner is ready to dock safely with the space station which actually started on the launch pad when we perform a check to make sure that the navigation and gps systems of starliner agreed that it was in fact on the launch pad after the next orbital insertion. Demonstrations will continue so ground controllers can ensure the spacecraft's systems are working properly.

When these first demonstrations are completed, Starliner will resume its path to the international space station and our systems are here. telling us that these first steps are complete and that Starliner's systems are doing exactly what they're supposed to do, we still have a few minutes before the orbital insertion burns out, about 13 minutes until it takes place, so let's get back to Florida , where Josh and Marie I've seen a spectacular morning liftoff, Brandi, it was a beautiful launch from here in Florida, it took off right here behind us, you know, the sun is starting to come up, there's a little bit of rocket plume left behind us , there is no rocket left behind. there, but it was just, I mean, it was impressive to see, I mean, I know you weren't looking from this view, you're looking much closer, but I mean, we just turned in our seats too to see it here and we could feel the roar. and I know you didn't see people celebrating in the control rooms because you know their job is not done at takeoff, it goes much further and then I think people are starting to breathe again, so people just I'm very happy about this achievement, I mean, obviously, this is just the beginning of the mission, but it's such a momentous occasion this morning and, in fact, we're hearing that, at the BMCC, Tori Pedrotti is with Lewis Atchison, who was the first on Starliner . launch driver and saw us during a successful first launch, torrey and lewis must be feeling pretty good right now yeah, thanks josh, that's uh, it's really great to have lewis here and know that you're taking him away from the console for just a minute for Talk to us, so Lewis, I know that you and Chris Ferguson have been very close throughout this process and I know that he asked you to create the launch procedures.

Can you give us some details about that? I think as you all know Chris has a very particular interest in how the launch procedures were put together uh I started with the program uh probably about seven years ago about a year later I was still a flight test engineer on the program. I met Chris in the elevator. I'm walking to work one morning and, frankly, I didn't know he knew my name, but he said, Hey Louis, if you have a little free time, can you work and maybe see if you can figure out how these launching procedures work?

I'm going to work for the show, and of course I thought, "Oh, yeah, sure, I've got some free time. I can find time to, you know, come up with some pitching procedures." That began basically a six-year journey to find a unique way to integrate the united launch alliance's atlas v launch procedure, which is a tried and tested launch process with something that had never flown before our space capsule and was Very different from any of the other payloads that have flown, so, as you can imagine, I had to merge several different cultures. Our flight control equipment, which is really NASA's homegrown.

Our ground control team, which is here at c3pf and performs many of the spacecraft ignition activities and is located here at c3pf. That's right. I'm a Florida local. So working on those process procedures and finding a way to integrate all of that and, by the way, we have to find time to load a crew someday and take that and put those things together so that everything comes together for an instant launch window. So today, luckily, we made our window. You know, it's a first-flight program. We saw some challenges overnight, but we have a world-class team here and they were able to overcome the little things we were seeing, fortunately.

I've had a good training program along the way and, uh, it's an incredibly exciting day, I know, and seeing a successful flight so far has been one of the best experiences I've had working on this program, but you mentioned that You know we had some setbacks, some problems that we needed to solve, so I guess today didn't go exactly as planned,no first flight does, so yeah, we were working on a couple of issues with the communication subsystem, fortunately. The flight control team was able to resolve it before we went flying today. A few days ago we had a couple of issues with the hatch that we were able to fix and that we found out about when we did our integrated launch day test, which was actually a fantastic test.

We made a couple of modifications to account for the fact that when there are pressure changes outside we need to bleed off some of that pressure in order to open the hatch. You'd be surprised how it's just a small pressure difference. a large surface area makes it very difficult to open, so we were able to arrange it so that the platform team here and the recovery team in the desert can open that side hatch, uh, without problems, that's great and there's nothing like a flight test to learn these things properly so this is why we do the test I completely agree and this is the first launch that had the opportunity to work in a control center right next to the launch vehicle , we have sinned.

I've trained for this and there was nothing like the feeling of the monitors and the floor shaking after the rocket took off today, so there was an incredible electric atmosphere this morning. I completely agree. Is there anything you would like to share with the team? Team you know here in Florida, in Houston, someone is watching, for sure, so first of all, I have to thank my family for all the time, patience and effort that was put in over the last few years, we worked hard. hours to make this type of thing happen and I realized that they are at home looking excitedly at the next part of the mission, which will be the recovery operation that I am a part of and also the team, this is the One of the best team sports you can imagine and it takes a lot of people to make all this happen and a lot of people need to be in the right place at the right time and know the right things to make this instantaneous.

The launch window happened and frankly everything happened on this show well, thanks Louis, it's been great having you here. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us. Thanks Josh Marie, I'll reply. Thanks Tori. Thank you very much, Tori uh. Well, you know, before we head back to JFC while they're preparing for orbital insertion, I just want you to know, send a message to everyone watching, not here from Florida, if you've never seen a rocket launch before, don't it's nothing. Have you ever seen it, I mean, it literally looks like another sun is rising in the sky so next time we do this there will be people on board and if you're in the states you can drive up here to Florida and come watch us fly Yes, just be prepared for a lot of traffic, don't expect to go anywhere soon after launch because we expect the place to be pretty busy, like it was during the space shuttle days, yes, I think there were over a million people here Now, actually, this is a video that we got from the platform team just as they were closing the clean room, showing us their excitement before they got off the platform, just taking a team moment to reflect on the story of this day, yeah, I mean, and you don't always see it when we're doing these operational things, but the people behind the scenes, I mean, you saw them in that hug there, it's really like a family um nasa boeing ula we work together every day, these people put in a lot of hours, they do this together, they're all working toward a common goal and you saw the culmination of that when we had that instant takeoff on exactly the first try and you know, like you said.

It's very much like a family. Many of these people are going to spend Christmas. You know, they make sure Starliner does well connected to the international space station. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to do what they do and we want to go. Back in Houston, we're hoping, before too long Starliner will be in orbit, so we want to get an update from Steve and Brandy to see how things are going there. Hello guys, thanks friends, that's right. It's looking great here in Houston, we're about five and a half minutes away from the orbital insertion burn that will circle Starliner's orbit.

Starliner is currently flying over southeastern Europe as it begins its pursuit. About 25 minutes ago it began its pursuit of the international space station, that's right, the international space station was about 260 miles over a big Australian bite south of Western Australia when, uh, when Starliner launched today and the crew members On board they received a video of its launch so I know they were probably following and cheering everyone here on the ground and they are also looking forward to seeing Starliner talk to the space station tomorrow and it will take a little over 24 hours for the Starliner to reach the space station. international level. space station in this orbital flight test, the normal docking scenario won't take as long when there is a crew on board, but since this is the first Starliner flight, we want to make sure that all systems are working and everything is doing what you're supposed to do next.

The entire Starliner is flying towards this alone, so even though right now it's going at Mach 25, 17,500 miles per hour to reach the space station, it will still take a little time to make sure all the systems are working as they're supposed to. that they must do it. Starliner surely knows where it is, where it's going, and will reach it in time, that's right, and now we're about four minutes away from that orbital insertion. The team here on the ground is continuing to make sure all systems are engaged. get up and talk like you're supposed to as we get closer to that, that's going to be about 40 seconds of burning, again moving space on the Starliner to the right orbit to reach the space station and it's going to be the four engines omac that are on starliner, are orbital control and maneuver engines of 1,500 pounds of thrust each, so they combine a 6,000-pound kick to push starliner a little, a little higher, a little faster, raise the orbit and put everything together.

Of course, those engines are going to play an important role over the next 24 hours as the Starliner makes its way to the international space station. We are now about three minutes and 14 seconds from orbital insertion. This, of course, follows an excellent launch this morning. and the power of the Atlas V that puts Starliner on exactly the right course and accelerates it from zero to orbital speed in about 11 and a half minutes. I think of powered flight. It's surprising how little time it takes to get to space, so drivers. Here they are carefully looking at all your systems making sure everything is fine.

It's very quiet here in the control room which is always a good sign as it means the controllers are heads down monitoring the systems and keeping track of everything that's happening right above the Middle East now we're also seeing here that Starliner reaction control system motors are for fine tuning. The 100-pound class engines are making small adjustments as Starliner adjusts its attitude moving over land, less than two minutes away. burns and you can see here the control room here at Houston Starliner Mission Control. This is, of course, a flight control room that has been used before for NASA missions, but this is the inaugural Starliner mission, so it is the first time it has been used for this Boeing spacecraft.

And of course the controllers are used to this room and have spent several hours here doing simulations and everything. It's a very professional team and many of these people are veterans of the shuttle mission. Without a doubt, Richard Jones, flight director, who is supervising this ascent and entry team and we are less than a minute away from orbital insertion. The flight controllers here are not working on any technical problems. The Unmac engines are positioning themselves to make that 40-second shot that will circle Starliner's orbit and get it done. in a position to continue its pursuit to the international space station which is currently approaching Central America and the controllers are maneuvering Starlinerin the correct attitude for this for this orbital insertion the controllers are observing the systems and the orbital insertion has been delayed the controllers are observing the attitude of Starliner as it positions itself and watching the spacecraft in flight once again that orbital insertion The burn that was supposed to take place about five and a half minutes ago was delayed because the team here on the ground is watching Starlander, not in the right attitude, they are working on it and we.

We will be looking for the next opportunity to do so. Starliner is currently using its hundred-pound class thrusters to maneuver in space. We're 37 minutes into this first Starliner flight and the flight controllers are looking at what the Mac engines are, of course, 1500 pound class. thrusters each of them there are four on starliner that's what they will use to complete the orbital insertion burn set here at starlander mission control we are still working on some steps to try to get starliner into the correct attitude for the burn of orbital insertion working on the next, the next opportunity for that and and we are looking to get Starliner in a good position for that and flight director Richard Jones reports that we are in a stable orbit.

Starliner is in stable orbit once again. Starliner is now in a stable orbit. We have it in a stable position, but teams here on the ground are working on what the best next steps should be for Starliner and Richard Jones reports that his flight controllers are turning the Starliner spacecraft toward what we call tail sun. position which means that the sun's rays will be pointed at the sun to recharge the Starliner's batteries and, of course, to power the spacecraft's systems. Starliner is in a stable orbit and the flight controllers are working on all options at their disposal as this maneuver to put Starliner into a tail sun position takes place the flight path and orbit of Starliner are both stable and we have an insertion outside the nominal reported we have spacecraft control guidance and the control teams are evaluating their next maneuvers the spacecraft batteries are good and the spacecraft is in a stable position view of orbit here within mission control starliner where flight controllers are working on what the next steps should be for starliner.

You can see flight director richard jones standing there next to uh behind the flight director console talking to his team members here in the room and once again we've had a misplaced nominal insertion we have control teams and spacecraft control guide here at starliner mission control they are evaluating options, evaluating all their options and contemplating the next maneuvers so that the starliner spacecraft has good batteries and is in a stable orbit and the control team flight also reported that Starliner finished moving to that tail sun position which will allow its batteries to recharge and if you're just tuning in Starliner took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 6:36 central time this morning, we've had a Los Mission control and nominal insertion teams are off here at Starliner Mission Control are evaluating all of their options for the Starliner spacecraft.

It is in a stable orbit. It has power and its solar panel is facing the sun to recharge its batteries. Also, that horrible insertion burn was. scheduled to take place 31 minutes after launch, but it did not happen as scheduled again, the teams here on the ground are evaluating their various options, analyzing what the best next steps might be for Starliner and, again, if it is just starting joining Starliner. took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, this morning at 6:36 a.m. Central Time to begin their search for the International Space Station. Since then, we have experienced an off-nominal insertion and the spacecraft is essentially in a stable position.

You have fully empowered mission control here in Houston. is evaluating all options we are moving away from broadcast and you can stay up to date on everything that is happening with the starliner mission at boeing.com we will also bring you more information here on nasa tv during the morning. progress thank you very much for joining us today we are going to close the session for now, but we will have more information for you soon. Hello, you're watching NASA TV on air and online every day on this planet and beyond.