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NARRATOR:
The addition of a 650-pound beam marked the

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topping off of a new, human-rated crew access
tower at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

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on Dec. 10 during a ceremony attended by NASA's
four Commercial Crew astronauts.

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Hundreds of employees and managers took part
in the ceremony at Space Launch Complex 41.

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The tower is designed to give astronauts and
ground support staff access to the Boeing

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CST-100 Starliner spacecraft as it stands
on the launch pad before liftoff on a United

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Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

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BOB BEHNKEN:
We also have the opportunity with a visit

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like this to talk to the folks that are putting
it together and re-emphasize to them that

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this is a little bit different than the launch
hardware maybe they put together in the past

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because there are people who will be using
it to ride into space. So things they do today

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will have consequences years from now.

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ERIC BOE:
You look at the structure, there's mass science,

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engineering and hard work that make all this
happen and so that's the things that we're

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emphasizing, that it will be nice to get the
rocket on the pad with this structure here

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and then have it where we're launching into
orbit from the United States again with manned

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crews so we're really looking forward to it.

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NARRATOR:
NASA's Commercial Crew Program is working

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in partnerships with Boeing and SpaceX to
develop the next generation of American-made

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spacecraft that will launch astronauts to
the International Space Station from Florida

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beginning in 2017.

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Prior to the ceremony at Cape Canaveral, the
astronauts toured the Crew Access Arm and

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White Room they will use as they climb into
the Starliner.

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Mounted on a stand identical to the top of
the Crew Access Tower, the 90,000-pound arm

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and White Room will undergo months of testing
to make sure the machinery will work right

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on launch day.

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It is the first new crew access structure
to be built at Cape Canaveral since the 1960s.

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DOUG HURLEY:
It's just so neat to see the progress that

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they've made already and it's just one more
step in getting us to back to flying from

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the U.S.

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SUNI WILLIAMS:
So it's really exciting to be here and imagine