Boeing’s Starliner space taxi is ready for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. This comes after years of setbacks and $1.5 billion in cost overruns. Liftoff is scheduled for 10:34 p.m. ET from Space Launch Complex 41 in Florida, marking the first crewed launch from the military launch facility in decades. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will be going to the International Space Station on what is essentially a shakedown cruise in the Starliner spacecraft.
NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to transport astronauts to the space station after the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon entered service first and has successfully flown eight crews for NASA. Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner faced challenges during an uncrewed test mission in 2019, leading to years of delays and safety issues. A re-do of the uncrewed flight test in 2022 paved the way for today’s crewed mission, but Boeing had to cover $1.5 billion in additional expenses as per the contract terms.
Veteran astronauts Wilmore and Williams are expected to arrive at the space station on Wednesday and spend about a week doing orbital checkouts of the Starliner craft named Calypso. They will return to Earth via a parachute-assisted, airbag-cushioned touchdown in the western U.S. After this mission, Boeing’s Starliner will join SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in ferrying astronauts to the space station every six months. Starliner is designed to carry up to seven spacefliers and having multiple providers will increase redundancy in transportation to the space station.
In addition to servicing the International Space Station, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is part of the team working on Orbital Reef, a commercial space station project led by Sierra Space and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Boeing has also partnered with Space Adventures on a plan to send customers into orbit on a commercial basis in the future. This mission will mark the first crewed flight of the Starliner and is a significant milestone in Boeing’s efforts to provide commercial transportation to the space station.
