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Starliner is our second crew module to take
astronauts launched at the
Kennedy Space Center, all the way to the International Space Station.
Dock, perform their tasks
and to return home. And Starliner will
actually land not in the ocean like
the Dragon spacecraft does, but instead
landing on the desert floor in the Western United States
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Just like
the Space Shuttle which helped us build the International Space Station -
which by the way is a 120 yards
long. In other words from one goal post
in a football field to the other goal post. - That’s how big
it is. Well the commercial crew program is
taking our crew to and from the International Space Station
and of course what we are doing is
as we adapt to long durations in
zero gravity, as we build new technology
and new procedures, it’s going to help
us on these much longer durations
back to the Moon and eventually to Mars.
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As we continue to develop new
spacecraft and as we continue
to develop spacecraft that we can reuse,
and as we start to use 3D
manufacturing
all of this is bringing down the cost of rockets and spacecraft.
So that it become much more available
to the average person to be able to go
into space. And I think one day we will
see the average person be able
to go and fly among the stars.
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This is another repeat of the first
test of an unscrewed Starliner spacecraft.
The first one had a malfunction in the software.
So NASA is very careful
we want this one to go perfectly
all the way to the International Space Station to dock
autonomously and then to return home
with a landing in the desert
in the Western U.S. We want that to go perfectly before
we put human astronauts on the first
actual flight with humans.
That is the reason we are doing the second orbital flight test.