Boeing Starliner: First crewed launch is headed for International Space Station

Boeing has successfully launched its Starliner spacecraft with a crew aboard for the first time, on the third attempt. The milestone launch means that NASA now has two commercial options for getting astronauts to space: Boeing and SpaceX.

Starliner launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida atop an Atlas V rocket on 5 June at 10.52am local time following years of delay. Originally, a crewed launch was slated to occur by the end of 2017, but the programme ran slower than expected. This mission was finally scheduled to take off in May, but a faulty valve forced NASA to abort the mission. A second launch attempt on 1 June was scrapped because of computer problems.

But the third launch just days later was a success, with the capsule reaching orbit according to plan. Aboard were NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will journey to the International Space Station over the course of 24 hours and stay for around a week while testing various systems, before returning to Earth in the same craft.

This particular capsule was named Calypso, reportedly after Jacques Cousteau’s oceanography vessel. The goal of the mission is to verify Starliner is safe for crew transport to and from the ISS. If those tests are a success, and the two astronauts safely return to Earth in Starliner, then similar craft can begin annual crewed flights to the space station.

Each Starliner is designed to last for up to 10 return flights, and can carry up to seven people per flight. Standard operational flights are likely to carry only three or four astronauts, however.

NASA awarded two contracts for shuttle craft to transport crew to the International Space Station a decade ago: one to Boeing for its Starliner and one to SpaceX for its Dragon capsule. Dragon pulled ahead of Starliner by making its first crewed flight in 2020.

Now Starliner is the sixth orbital spacecraft in US history to make a crewed launch, being preceded by Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the Space Shuttle and Dragon.