The CST-100 Starliner is a spacecraft design under construction by Boeing in collaboration with Bigelow Aerospace as their entry for NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program. Its primary mission is to transport crew to the International Space Station, and to private space stations such as the proposed Bigelow Aerospace Commercial Space Station.

It is similar to the Orion, a spacecraft being built for NASA by Lockheed Martin. The capsule has a diameter of 4.56 meters (15.0 ft), which is slightly larger than the Apollo command module and smaller than the Orion capsule. The Starliner is to support larger crews of up to seven people. The CST-100 is designed to be able to remain on-orbit for up to seven months and for reusability for up to ten missions. It is to be compatible with multiple launch vehicles, including the Atlas V, Delta IV, and Falcon 9, as well as the planned Vulcan. The initial launch vehicle would be the Atlas V.

On September 16, 2014, NASA selected the CST-100, along with SpaceX's Dragon V2, for the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) program, with an award of $4.2 billion. The spacecraft is expected to fly to the International Space Station with an astronaut aboard by December 2017.

For a full schedule of launches and deep-space rendezvous, see 2023 in spaceflight.

Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930–25 August, 2012) was an American astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He is the first person to set foot on the Moon. After serving as a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952 in the Korean War, Armstrong joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1955. Over the next 17 years, he was an engineer, test pilot, astronaut and administrator for NACA and its successor agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As a research pilot, Armstrong served as project pilot on the F-100 Super Sabre A and C aircraft, F-101 Voodoo, and the Lockheed F-104A Starfighter. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini 8 in 1966, for which he was the command pilot. On this mission, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft together with pilot David Scott. Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission on July 20, 1969. On this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent 2½ hours exploring making him the first human to walk on the Moon, while Michael Collins remained in orbit in the Command Module. Armstrong is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

More selected biographies

8 September

• 1967 - An Atlas-Centaur upper stage launches the Surveyor 5 lunar lander.
• 1970 - A Voskhod launches the Kosmos 361 satellite.
• 1973 - A Kosmos-3M launches the Kosmos 585 satellite.
• 1982 - A Soyuz-U launches the Kosmos 1406 satellite.
• 1983 - A Delta 3924 launches the Satcom 2R satellite.
• 1984 - An Atlas E/F launches a GPS satellite.
• 1988 - An Ariane 3 launches the Gstar 3 and SBS-5 satellites.
• 1996 - An Atlas IIA launches the GE-1 satellite.
• 1998 - A Delta II launches five Iridium satellites.
• 2000 - Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on mission STS-106 to the ISS.
• 2001 - An Atlas IIAS launches two NOSS satellites.
• 2004 - A Long March 4B launches two SJ-6 satellites.
• 2004 - The attempted mid-air retrieval of the Genesis return capsule fails when its parachute fails to deploy.
• 2005 - A Soyuz-U launches the Progress M-54 spacecraft to resupply the ISS.
• 2005 - A Proton-M launches the Anik F1R satellite.
• 2009 - An Atlas V 401 launches the USA-207 military communication satellite.
• 2010 - A Rokot launches the Kosmos 2467, Kosmos 2468 and one Gonets-M satellite.

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• ... that astronaut James McDivitt saw a UFO during his first spaceflight?
• ... that astrophysicist Suzanna Randall continued her research at the European Southern Observatory while training for the spaceflight programme Die Astronautin?
• ... that Iran's first three-stage satellite carrier, Qaem 100, successfully passed its suborbital test?

• 

…that the Vehicle Assembly Building is so large that rain clouds are reported to form inside it on humid days?

• …that when investigating the Challenger accident, Richard Feynman threatened to remove his name from the report unless it included his personal observations on the reliability of the shuttle?
• ...that the USSR had its own Space Shuttle, Buran?