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Boeing opens repurposed facility to build CST-100 crew capsule

The CST-100 has been officially named Starliner.

By Marilyn Malara
Parts of the Boeing CST-100 Structural Test Article rest on test stands inside the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or C3PF, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo by Kim Shiflett/NASA
Parts of the Boeing CST-100 Structural Test Article rest on test stands inside the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or C3PF, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo by Kim Shiflett/NASA

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Boeing's new CST-100 Starliners will be built in the recently repurposed Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or C3PF, located at Kennedy Space Center.

The aerospace company unveiled the CST-100's official name as well as its processing facility Friday during a grand opening event in Cape Canaveral.

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Boeing took possession of the site -- which was once the base of the space shuttle Discovery -- after NASA's shuttle program closed.

"We cleaned this all out, took a lot of the services out of here, took a lot of the plumbing, put in new facilities and we are getting ready to now build our crew module and our service module," said Chris Fergusun, former NASA astronaut and current deputy program manager at Boeing.

The CST-100 has been officially named the Starliner. Photo courtesy of Boeing

The outfit's opening marks an emphasized partnership between the space agency and Boeing as they work to develop a reusable spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts back and forth from the International Space Station. The Starliner is Boeing's player in the commercial development strategy launched by NASA last year; the agency also has a contract with SpaceX.

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The initiative is aimed to bring human space flight back to the United States in a new way, allowing NASA to "rent" the developing "space taxis" to ferry crews to and from the ISS.

The high bay of Kennedy Space Center's new facility is expected to be completed in December while a test version of the Starliner is scheduled for its launchpad abort test in 2017.

"We had an incredible history here, and more importantly right now, there's a really bright future," Ferguson said.

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