New NASA app puts you in the pilot’s seat of Boeing’s Starliner or SpaceX’s Crew Dragon

NASA has a new app (or web-based game, if you're on desktop) that provides a simplified simulation of what it's like to plan and run a commercial crew mission - meaning one of the planned varieties of mission that will actually take place aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner once they begin flying crews next year.

The app takes you through each part of the process, from spacecraft choice, to mission type, to crew selection, and then to the actual launch and docking process. It's mostly about providing some education about each part of the process, rather than offering up an exhaustively realistic flight simulator - but the docking process with the International Space Station can be handled either on full automatic or on manual mode - and manual mode is fairly challenging and fun.

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NASA has included plenty of great info on both the Crew Dragon and the Starliner, and the respective rockets they will launch atop. It also included great bios for 10 actual astronauts you can select from to staff your mission. The launch assembly stage was a bit buggy when I gave it a try on my iPhone, but still workable, and it also provides key info about each element of the launch spacecraft, from boosters to crew capsules and everything in between.

The 'Rocket Science: Ride 2 Station' app is a free download, out now on iOS, and also available on the web.