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SCIENCESaturday 5 September 2015
Boeing names its new Apollo-style spacecraft the Starliner
ty manager of operations
for Boeing’s commercial
crew program.
“We get asked a lot,
‘When are you going to
pick a name for that won-
derful spacecraft?’” Fergu-
son told the crowd. “Well,
I’ve always said, ‘Just wait.
It’s coming.’ Well, guess
what? The wait is over.”
“Please welcome the CST-
100 Starliner,” Ferguson
said as a temporary wall
behind him rose and re-
vealed, to dramatic music
and flashing lights, space-
craft sections that will be
used for testing.
In choosing the name,
Boeing wanted to give a
nod to the next generation
of space and the next 100
years of flight for Boeing,
Ferguson said. The Chica-
go-based company will
mark its 100th anniversary
next summer.
NASA Administrator
Charles Bolden Jr., also a
former shuttle skipper, talk-
ed up the space agency’s
plans to send astronauts to
Mars in the 2030s, with Boe-
ing and SpaceX picking
On the screen at left is a rendering of the CST-100 Starliner. The building was formerly a processing facility for the space shuttle. up the get-crews-to-orbit
Associated Press
slack.
MARCIA DUNN The aerospace giant an- officials, and a bevy of for- ed by NASA to transport “If you’re not excited, then
AP Aerospace Writer nounced the name of its mer astronauts, gathered space station astronauts
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. future space fleet Friday. at NASA’s Kennedy Space from Cape Canaveral. there’s something wrong
(AP) — Boeing already has More than 200 people, in- Center to celebrate the SpaceX, the other com-
the Dreamliner. Now it also cluding Florida Gov. Rick grand opening of Boeing’s pany, is developing an with you, to be quite hon-
has the Starliner. Scott, NASA and Boeing commercial crew and car- enhanced version of its
go processing facility. cargo-carrying Dragon est,” Bolden said.
Once a space shuttle han- capsule — a super Dragon.
gar, the transformed build- That work is being carried The most senior astronaut
ing will serve as home to out at its headquarters in
the Starliner. Its first launch Hawthorne, California. present, Gemini and Apol-
with a crew to the Interna- NASA wants its astronauts
tional Space Station is tar- launching from U.S. soil lo’s Thomas Stafford, liked
geted for 2017. again rather than hitching
Until Friday, Boeing’s still-un- expensive rides from Ka- what he saw.
der-development capsule zakhstan with the Russian
was known simply as the Space Agency. That hasn’t “It’s a great name,” said
CST-100, an abbreviation happened since the last
for Crew Space Transpor- shuttle flight in 2011. Stafford, 79, who flew to
tation and 100 kilometers, The Starliner name was re-
the threshold of space. vealed by the command- the moon on Apollo 10,
Boeing is one of two private er of the last shuttle flight,
U.S. companies contract- Chris Ferguson, now depu- two months before the first
manned moon landing in
1969. He said the space-
craft is reminiscent of the
capsules from the Apollo
moon program.
NASA’s commercial crew
contract with Boeing to
certify, test and fly the Star-
liner capsules totals $4.2
billion. The SpaceX con-
tract is worth $2.6 billion.q
