"Rosie the Rocketeer" is ready to head to the ISS! For its second uncrewed flight test, Boeing's dummy will take the commander's seat inside the company's Starliner capsule for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Rosie will have an important role this time: help the spacecraft maintain its center of gravity during the flight.
The unmanned flight is set to take place on July 30th. The CST-100 Starliner, a reusable next-generation space capsule, will launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 2:53 p.m. ET, and the commander's seat will be taken by "Rosie the Rocketeer." Rosie is a 180-pound (82-kg) test device designed to mimic the 50th percentile of human height and weight dimensions.
The dummy was named after World War II's Rosie the Riveter, an icon who encouraged women to pursue careers in aerospace. It will be fitted with a Boeing blue spacesuit and red polka dot headscarf, and Mae Krier, a real-life Rosie who helped construct planes in a Boeing factory in Seattle almost 80 years ago, will hand-sew a matching face mask for the dummy's second journey.
Rosie's first flight took place in 2019 on the company's Starliner, but it was cut short due to an anomaly encountered on its way to the ISS. Back then, she was outfitted with 15 sensors to collect data on what astronauts will experience during flights.
This time, the test flight will focus on maintaining the spacecraft's center of gravity during ascent, docking, undocking, and landing. The data collection ports that were previously linked to Rosie's 15 sensors will be utilized to gather data from sensors positioned along with the seat pallet (the infrastructure that holds all of the crew seats in place).
Prior to the launch, the Starliner spacecraft will be loaded onto a weight and center of gravity machine at the Kennedy Space Center to ensure that Rosie and the cargo are correctly balanced. If the uncrewed goes as planned, NASA and Boeing are planning a first crewed flight later this year.
The dummy was named after World War II's Rosie the Riveter, an icon who encouraged women to pursue careers in aerospace. It will be fitted with a Boeing blue spacesuit and red polka dot headscarf, and Mae Krier, a real-life Rosie who helped construct planes in a Boeing factory in Seattle almost 80 years ago, will hand-sew a matching face mask for the dummy's second journey.
Rosie's first flight took place in 2019 on the company's Starliner, but it was cut short due to an anomaly encountered on its way to the ISS. Back then, she was outfitted with 15 sensors to collect data on what astronauts will experience during flights.
This time, the test flight will focus on maintaining the spacecraft's center of gravity during ascent, docking, undocking, and landing. The data collection ports that were previously linked to Rosie's 15 sensors will be utilized to gather data from sensors positioned along with the seat pallet (the infrastructure that holds all of the crew seats in place).
Prior to the launch, the Starliner spacecraft will be loaded onto a weight and center of gravity machine at the Kennedy Space Center to ensure that Rosie and the cargo are correctly balanced. If the uncrewed goes as planned, NASA and Boeing are planning a first crewed flight later this year.