"We love Florida." Starliner astronauts arrive at Cape Canaveral ahead of upcoming flight

Three T-38 jets swooped in over the Cape Canaveral area on Thursday afternoon. Spectators at Kennedy Space Center watched as the three jets landed and rolled up to a waiting press site on the Launch and Landing Facility tarmac.

One of the T-38 jets held particular interest to those watching and waiting.

Piloting the T-38 jet was Butch Wilmore; his crewmate Sunita Williams in the seat behind him. Both will be the first NASA astronauts to fly on Boeing's Starliner ahead of its launch next month to the International Space Station.

The CFT (Crew Flight Test) mission is scheduled to launch at 10:34 p.m. on Monday, May 6.

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“We love Florida,” said Wilmore, addressing the crowd. “This is where you launch humans into space. The opportunity to fly in here in our T-38s and know that in less than two weeks the next flight we take we will be on our backs as we actually launch into the heavens — we leave this planet.”

“To do this on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. All the individuals who have put into this… It makes me want to mention everybody’s name,” said Wilmore.

“This is where the rubber meets the road,” added Williams. “We are going to leave this planet, and that is pretty darn cool.”

Crew Flight Test astronauts will test the Starliner spacecraft

The astronauts spoke about their upcoming flight to the International Space Station as test pilots, where they will spend approximately a week. During the mission, they will test every aspect of the spacecraft to ensure it functions as planned.

From launch, to docking, to landing, the astronauts will be occupied with assessing Starliner. During their time onboard the ISS, Williams and Wilmore will test that the spacecraft can function as a “safe haven”, or lifeboat, in case of an issue onboard the space station.

Astronauts have plans before the launch of Starliner

FLORIDA TODAY asked Wilmore and Williams about the itinerary for the upcoming week. While the astronauts will be in quarantine to ensure their health for this mission, they will still be active.

“Review. Review. And Review,” said Wilmore. “There’s so much in this, a fair amount of responsibility. We are ready, but we want to stay ready. We got a week to continue to make sure that there is not a single event that we have trained for that we are not ready for.”

Friday, the crew has a planned crew training activity where they will board the spacecraft and strap in as they will on launch day. Wilmore says he plans to look around carefully to ensure they are familiar with the smallest details of the spacecraft prior to launch day.

“It’s going to be a week of review and preparation," said Wilmore.

Contact Space Reporter Brooke Edwards at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Starliner astronauts arrive at Kennedy Space Center in NASA T-38 jets