INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Josh Cassada, 45, will fly with Sunita Williams, 52, aboard NASA's first contracted Starliner missionHouston: Indian-origin US astronaut
Sunita Williams is among the nine astronauts named by NASA today for its first human spaceflight programme since the retirement of the space
shuttle in 2011.After years of vehicle development and building anticipation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has
now put the crew in commercial crew spacecraft.The space agency announced that the nine astronauts will launch on the first crewed test
flights and missions of new commercial spacecraft built and operated by The Boeing Company and SpaceX.The eight active NASA astronauts and
one former astronaut-turned-corporate crew member will launch on Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Dragoncapsules to the International
Space Station beginning in 2019.The missions will mark the first crewed launches from US soil since the end of the space shuttle programme
seven years ago.In addition to naming the crews of the test flights, NASA also announced today the four astronauts who will fly aboard the
first operational Starliner and Dragon missions to the space station
Both vehicles were developed in cooperation with NASA to deliver crew members to and from the orbiting laboratory.Josh Cassada, 45, will fly
with Sunita "Suni" Williams, 52, aboard NASA's first contracted Starliner mission
It will be Cassada's first spaceflight
Sunita Williams previously logged 321 days in orbit on two stays aboard the space station, most recently returning to the Earth in 2012.The
commercial crew members took to the stage during an event led by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine at the agency's Johnson Space Center in
Houston.NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, 48, and Douglas Hurley, 51, will fly together as SpaceX's first Dragon crew.Veterans of two
spaceflights each, Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A - the same
Florida launch pad where the space shuttle left Earth for the last time in July 2011 with Mr Hurley as pilot.NASA astronauts Eric Boe, 53,
and Nicole Mann, 41, will join the commander of that same final space shuttle mission, former astronaut and now Boeing executive Christopher
Ferguson, 56, as the crew of the Starliner test flight, launching atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Complex 41 at the Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.Mr Ferguson, who has been involved from the start in the Starliner's development, flew three shuttle
missions as a NASA astronaut
Eric Boe piloted two shuttle flights
This will be Mann's first launch, having joined the astronaut corps in 2013.Robert Behnken, Douglas Hurley, Eric Boe and Nicole Mann are
NASA's first astronauts to be named to the test flights of new US spacecraft since the March 1978 announcement of the space shuttle's first
orbital flight test crews
Christopher Ferguson will become the first former NASA astronaut to return to orbit as a company's crew member when he flies.Prior to their
maiden crewed missions, both Boeing and SpaceX plan uncrewed test flights in late 2018 or early 2019.Both companies will also conduct abort
system test flights to ensure the astronauts can safely escape should their rockets go awry.Victor Glover, 42, and Michael Hopkins, 49, will
fly on the first operational mission of SpaceX's crewed Dragon
It will be Victor Glover's first time in space
Michael Hopkins logged 166 days aboard the space station in 2014.The two pairs of NASA crewmates will fly to the station with Russian
cosmonauts and international astronauts to be announced at a later date
Between the end of the space shuttle program and the start of commercial crew operations, NASA's crew members have and are continuing to
launch to the space station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.Sunita Williams, along with Robert Behnken, Douglas Hurley and Eric Boe, were named
in 2015 as NASA's "commercial crew cadre" and have been working with Boeing and SpaceX on the development of the spacecraft and the
simulators that will be used to train astronauts to fly.The two companies have also developed new spacesuits, modified their launch pads and
established mission control teams to support the upcoming flights.With the start of four-person commercial missions, the International Space
Station crew is slated to grow by one to a seven-person residency in order to maximize the science that can be conducted on board.Boeing's
and SpaceX's commercial spacecraft may also open the space station - and more broadly, Earth orbit - to more privately-funded visitors and
spaceflight participants from countries that do not have their own domestic crewed spacecraft and rockets.
