Boeing Starliner 360-Degrees Interior Video Is a Monument of Confusion for Non-Astronauts

It’s the Boeing Starliner we’re talking about, one of the biggest disappointments of the re-ignited space race. Hailed as a proper companion for the Crew Dragon when it first surfaced, it should have already been in business, carrying people to and from the International Space Station (ISS).

To be fair, the Starliner did fly, attempting to reach the ISS for the first time in 2020. It departed the launch pad as scheduled, and went to space, but then a technical issue prevented it from docking.

A long period of repairs followed, and the subsequent launch attempt was scrapped right on the pad on account of another issue. It finally managed to get off the ground once more in 2022, and this time everything worked (almost) as advertised, opening the doors for the first crewed flight of the Boeing spacecraft.

That is expected to take place sometime in July (pushed from April). The mission is called Crew Flight Test (CFT), and it will depart Earth with astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore (commander) and Suni Williams (pilot) on board.

We’ve known many of the Starliner’s details for a while now, but this week, Boeing decided to treat us with an incredible view of the spaceship’s interior, thanks to a very short 360-degree video. You can have a look at it below this text, but don’t expect to leave this page a lot wiser. Unless you’re a trained astronaut, or at least a very passionate spacecraft aficionado, it will most likely end in a lot of confusion.

The short video (under a minute) was captured while people were on board, conducting various checks. We see one of them in one of the spacecraft’s seats, and three others around him. There are no displays visible from where the camera is sitting, just a lot of wiring, blue tape, and various pieces of equipment a civilian would have a very hard time knowing what to do with.

Now that the most prominent event of recent times in space exploration is out of the way – the launch of the SpaceX Starship, which “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation,” as the company pointed out – the Starliner is the next big moment for the industry this year.

The success of the CFT mission is not necessarily crucial for America’s space exploration program, but it will certainly give NASA a lot more options for sending cargo and crew up to the space station.