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Astronauts selected to crew first flight tests bring 'new era in American spaceflight'

By Kelly Healey
By Kelly Healey
NASA announced Friday which astronauts will be assigned to crew the first flight tests and missions of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon.
Retired Air Force Col. and NASA
astronaut 
Eric
Boe, U.S. Marine Corp Lt. Col. and NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann and Boeing astronaut and two-time shuttle commander Chris Ferguson were selected.
“NASA partnered with Boeing and SpaceX to develop the Starliner spacecraft to launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and the Crew Dragon launching atop the Falcon 9 rocket, respectively,” a news release said.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Read: More about the crew

The SpaceX team includes: NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley, John Cassada, Suni Williams, Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins.
The Starliner and Crew Dragon will launch American astronauts on an American-made spacecraft from the Johnson Space Center in Houston to the International Space Station for the first time since NASA retired its space shuttle program in 2011.
The release said the launch will begin a “new era in American spaceflight.”
Boeing is hoping to launch its unmanned test flight aboard the Starliner spacecraft in late 2018 or early 2019, and its first manned flight in mid-2019.
SpaceX hopes to launch its unmanned Crew Dragon in November 2018 with a manned demonstration in April 2019.

Cox Media Group

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