Boeing Reaches Milestone with Successful Space Taxi Launch

(Bloomberg) — Boeing Co.’s long-delayed space taxi blasted off Wednesday carrying its first astronauts bound for the International Space Station, a crucial test for the embattled aerospace titan and its top customer, NASA.

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The CST-100 Starliner lifted off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 10:52 a.m. local time.

The flight is underway. The capsule, which carried veteran NASA astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, separated from the ULA rocket about 15 minutes into the mission. Starliner then fired its thrusters and reached a stable orbit about 30 minutes after liftoff.

“You’re seeing a lot of happy faces and applause here (in Houston) and there in Florida,” NASA public affairs officer Brandi Dean said in a live webcast. “Everyone is happy to see that the Starliner is safely in orbit.”

The spacecraft will perform a series of maneuvers to put it on course to connect with the space station at about 12:15 p.m. Florida time on Thursday, for a stay of approximately one week.

Wednesday’s test is the culmination of years of delays caused by technical glitches and failures on the Starliner spacecraft. These include a previous failed test flight in 2019 and new concerns last month about a still-unresolved helium leak that NASA has been monitoring throughout the mission.

NASA is using the flight to prove that the Starliner can safely transport people to and from the ISS under the U.S. space agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

In 2014, NASA awarded Boeing $4.2 billion and Elon Musk’s SpaceX $2.6 billion to create vehicles to transport the agency’s astronauts into space. Although Starliner is seven years behind schedule, SpaceX has launched nine separate crews to NASA’s space station since 2020.

Boeing and NASA first attempted the launch on May 6, but the flight was halted hours before liftoff due to strange behavior of the pressure valve on the Atlas V rocket. Boeing further delayed the launch for a few weeks to investigate a small helium leak on the Starliner.

A June 1 attempt was canceled less than four minutes before liftoff after a launch computer needed for the final stages of the flight was slow to respond.

Before Wednesday’s launch, Wilmore noticed the American flags he saw that day, including on the Atlas V rocket itself.

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“We believe this represents unity and resilience and unified efforts for the common good,” he said minutes before the launch. “Suni and I are honored to share this dream of spaceflight with each of you.”

–With assistance from Julie Johnsson.

(Updates with Starliner development history from eighth paragraph.)

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