COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A Tennessee Tech alumnus and Board of Trustees member will be returning to space for NASA's Boeing Crew Fight Test.
Barry Wilmore will command the inaugural crewed flight of the CST-100 Starliner launching to the International Space Station in 2021, according to a Tennessee Tech press release.
“This is a test flight. The first flight of this spacecraft. These don’t come around very often,” Wilmore said in the release. “To have the opportunity to step in and be the commander of the first flight is a great opportunity.”
Wilmore is a retired U.S. Navy captain with more than 7,800 flight hours and 663 carrier landings in tactical jet aircraft. He was selected as an astronaut in 2000.
He has spent a total of 178 days in space over the course of two missions. In 2009, he served as the pilot of space shuttle Atlantis on STS-129, helping to deliver 14 tons of spare parts for the space station. In 2014, he returned to the space station via a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a 167-day mission, during which he performed four spacewalks.
“I enjoyed the other missions and I was an important part of them,” said Wilmore. “But, to command a launch vehicle is really why I came to NASA from the Navy.”
An uncrewed launch is set for December or January and Wilmore's flight scheduled to launch no earlier than June 25, 2021.
