Boeing successfully launched the Starliner spacecraft on Thursday evening. At 6:54 p.m. (local time), the Starliner departed from the Cape Canaveral launch site in the US state of Florida. This is an unmanned test flight to the International Space Station. Two previous attempts failed.
If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will dock with the ISS overnight Friday to Saturday, where it will remain for a few days. Then it returns to Earth. If the entire mission is successful, the Starliner’s first manned flight may follow at the end of this year or early next year.
The first attempt to dock the Starliner to the ISS took place in December 2019, but the launch ended in disappointment. The capsule failed to properly orbit the Earth to reach the ISS, due to software flaws, it later emerged.
A second attempt was long in coming. Boeing was preparing Starliner for a rematch in August, but the launch was canceled several hours in advance, this time due to technical problems. The capsule was returned to Boeing for repair.
Like Elon Musk’s competitor SpaceX, Boeing has a contract with the American space agency NASA to fly crews and supplies to the ISS. SpaceX has successfully completed four of those missions.
–
