On Thursday evening, Boeing successfully launched its Starliner spacecraft. At exactly 6:54 PM local time, the Starliner departed from the launch site at Cape Canaveral, Florida. This is an unmanned test flight to the International Space Station. Two previous attempts failed.
If everything goes according to plan, the spacecraft will dock at the ISS overnight Friday to Saturday, where it will stay 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 as a result of software errors, 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.