By Boeing made history on Wednesday by launching astronauts for the first time, joining SpaceX as the second taxi service for NASA after years of delays. The Starliner capsule, carrying NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, marking the spacecraft’s first crewed flight.
The trip to the International Space Station (ISS) is expected to take 25 hours, with an arrival scheduled for Thursday. Wilmore and Williams, both retired Navy captains and former ISS residents, will spend just over a week at the orbiting lab before returning to Earth in Starliner for a remote desert touchdown in the western U.S. on June 14.
Starliner’s crew debut comes years later than originally planned due to various spacecraft flaws. The capsule’s initial test flight in 2019 was marred by bad software, necessitating a repeat before NASA would allow astronauts on board. The 2022 do-over showed significant improvement, but parachute problems and the presence of flammable tape caused further delays.
Despite the setbacks, Wilmore and Williams expressed full confidence in Boeing’s ability to deliver a successful test flight. The launch was the third attempt with astronauts since early May, following a pair of rocket-related issues and a small helium leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system.
Boeing was hired alongside Elon Musk’s SpaceX a decade ago as part of NASA’s commercial crew program, which aimed to have two competing U.S. companies ferry astronauts to and from the ISS following the retirement of the space shuttles. SpaceX achieved this milestone in 2020, becoming the first private business to launch astronauts into orbit.
The liftoff also marked the 100th launch of an Atlas V rocket for United Launch Alliance and the first time astronauts have ridden an Atlas rocket since John Glenn’s Mercury era more than 60 years ago.
During the mission, Wilmore and Williams will occasionally take manual control of Starliner to check out its systems. If the flight goes well, NASA plans to alternate between SpaceX and Boeing for future taxi flights, starting next year. Mike Fincke, the backup pilot for this test flight, is set to strap in for Starliner’s next trip.
The successful launch of Starliner with NASA astronauts on board represents a significant milestone for Boeing and the U.S. space program, opening up a new era of commercial crew transportation to the ISS.
Credit: AP
