We are just a week away from seeing Boeing's Starliner spaceship blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in a crucial test flight to the International Space Station.
To create some buzz ahead of the May 19 launch and to spread the word about the mission, Boeing has shared a time-lapse video showing the craft on what appears to be the easiest journey it will ever have to make.
The footage shows the Starliner being transported from the Commercial Crew Processing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center to the Vertical Integration Facility operated by United Launch Alliance.
We sped up this time lapse so you can see #Starliner's rollout and stack in under 2 minutes.
Watch from Starliner's perspective as it heads from our factory to the @ulalaunch Vertical Integration Facility.
Join us for Orbital Flight Test-2 launch on May 19. pic.twitter.com/g2cyviU4Oa
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) May 10, 2022
The time-lapse, which runs for just over nine minutes, was shared by Boeing for people who wanted to see more of the mission.
Next week's uncrewed mission is important for Boeing as it follows a failed flight in December and a second mission hiccup last August where the Starliner couldn't even get off the launchpad.
Boeing's Orbital Flight Test-2 is designed to demonstrate that the company has resolved all of the issues and is now able to fly safely to and from the space station.
The Starliner is expected to dock at the International Space Station on May 20. NASA cargo and crew supplies will be in it. 600 pounds of cargo will be brought with it when it lands in New Mexico after being docked at the International Space Station for between 5 and 10 days.
NASA will have another option if the mission goes according to plan. In the coming years, other near-Earth habitable satellites are expected to go into operation, but for now, that means the International Space Station.
The first uncrewed cargo missions to the space station were carried out by the Dragon spaceship. The first of the Crew Dragon for astronauts flights took place in 2020. There is a review of that historic mission in pictures.
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