Lead NASA Operations Engineer Courtney Stern, with the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Recovery Team, inspects the pony collar on a test version of the Orion capsule in the well deck of the USS John P. Murtha before a night deployment on Nov. 3, 2018, during Underway Recovery Test-7 (URT-7). URT-7 is one in a series conducted by the EGS Recovery Team to verify and validate procedures and hardware that will be used to recover the Orion spacecraft after it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean following deep space exploration missions. Orion will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.

From left to right, Courtney Stern, ground and mission operations recovery/rescue, NASA Kennedy Space Center Commercial Crew Program; Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program; Mark Nappi, vice president and manager, Boeing Commercial Crew Program; Leroy Cain, mission integration and operations manager, Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program; Dana Hutcherson, deputy manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program; and Richard Jones, deputy manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, prepare to raise the NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test flag on Thursday, April 25, 2024, near the countdown clock at the Press Site at the Florida spaceport. As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are the first to launch to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from nearby Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff is scheduled for 10:34 p.m. ET on Monday, May 6.

NASA astronaut and Crew Recovery Chief Shannon Walker, center, and other NASA and Boeing teams listen to Boeing Starliner Launch Conductor Louis Atchison as they prepare for the landing of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft at White Sands Missile Range’s Space Harbor, Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in New Mexico. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. OFT-2 serves as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)