Contrast with an airline passenger sitting helpless in an unfamiliar airport, the Starliner astronauts are highly trained and a part of the operation. Among NASA’s most experiencedThe Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT) astronauts are Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams. Wilmore’s first space flight was as second-in-command pilot on STS-129 Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2009. In flight: days, weeks, months…After years of delays, the Starliner Crew Flight Test launched June 5, 2024. The decision was to use the alternative Commercial Crew vehicle, SpaceX’s CrewDragon, to rescue the Starliner crew.