What to know about Boeing’s first spaceflight carrying NASA astronauts

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — After years of stumbles and delays, Boeing has finally launched astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA.

It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.

NASA turned to U.S. companies for astronaut rides after the space shuttles were retired. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has made nine taxi trips for NASA since 2020, while Boeing has managed only a pair of empty test flights.

Provided this tryout goes well, NASA will alternate between Boeing and SpaceX to get astronauts to and from the space station.

A look at the newest ride and its shakedown cruise:

White with black and blue trim, Boeing’s Starliner capsule is about 10 feet (3 meters) tall and 15 feet (4.5 meters) in diameter. It can fit up to seven people, though NASA crews typically will number four. The company settled on the name Starliner nearly a decade ago, a twist on the name of Boeing’s early Stratoliner and the current Dreamliner planes.

No one was aboard Boeing’s two previous Starliner test flights. The first, in 2019, was hit with software trouble so severe that its empty capsule couldn’t reach the station until the second try in 2022. Then last summer, weak parachutes and flammable tape cropped up that needed to be fixed or removed. Wednesday’s launch was the third try with astronauts; two earlier countdowns were scuttled by rocket-related issues.

Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are retired Navy captains who spent months aboard the space station years ago. They joined the test flight after the original crew bowed out as the delays piled up. Wilmore, 61, is a former combat pilot from Mount Juliet, Tennessee, and Williams, 58, is a helicopter pilot from Needham, Massachusetts.

Starliner blasted off on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It’s the first time astronauts have ridden an Atlas since NASA’s Project Mercury, starting with John Glenn when he became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. Now 62 years later, Wednesday’s launch was the 100th for the top-of-the-line Atlas V, which is used to hoist satellites as well as spacecraft. ULA is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Starliner should reach the space station with its seven residents on Thursday. Starliner will remain docked for just over a week, undergoing checkouts…