Boeing Starliner finally takes off with two NASA astronauts: NPR

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The third time was the charm.

The long-delayed Boeing Starliner space capsule lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying two NASA astronauts and reached orbit about twelve minutes later. The crew will spend the next 25 hours racing to catch up with the International Space Station.

The mission is the first time a commercially built capsule has carried humans, with astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore in command and Sunita “Suni” Williams serving as mission pilot scheduled to dock with the station Thursday around 12:15 p.m. ET.

It was the Starliner’s third launch attempt. On Saturday, the countdown was stopped with less than four minutes remaining. The fault was a problem with the flight computers that control the launch. Launch provider ULA replaced the power supply in the system and cleared it for Wednesday’s launch. It followed a launch attempt last month that was called off due to a malfunctioning valve on the Atlas V rocket’s Centaur upper stage.

While fixing this problem, Boeing discovered another: a helium leak. The gas is used in the Starliner’s propulsion system. After reviewing the data, NASA was confident that Boeing could successfully manage the mission.

With all these issues resolved and the Starliner on its way to the space station, it seems that this third try really is the charm. Now launched, Wilmore and Williams take the Starliner on its first flight, putting the vehicle through its paces before operational missions for NASA. After the Space Shuttle retired in 2011, NASA partnered with two commercial companies — Boeing and SpaceX — to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.

But Boeing lags behind its commercial space shuttle counterpart SpaceX, which has already flown nine missions for NASA and four more private flights. An uncrewed Starliner mission in 2019 failed to reach the station, in part due to faulty flight computer code. The launch’s re-flight in 2022 was considered a success by NASA and Boeing, but problems were later discovered in the capsule’s parachute systems.

The analysis also found that the tape used to manage hundreds of feet of wiring in the spacecraft was flammable. Boeing solved these problems and got NASA approval to launch the crew

But that first attempt to launch this crewed mission last month was scuttled by a problem with the rocket responsible for giving the Starliner its big boost into space.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore (L) and Suni Williams in Boeing spacesuits as they leave the Operations and Treasury Building for the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday. This is the third journey into space for both of them.

MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images/AFP

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MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images/AFP

Willmore and Williams will test the Starliner’s key systems as it docks with the space station, including life support and communications. While the spacecraft can essentially fly itself, the pair will test manual control of the vehicle as it approaches the base in orbit.

The crew will spend about a week aboard the station with a planned parachute landing in the US Southwest. The NASA and Boeing teams will discuss the data from this flight before certifying the vehicle for an operational mission. NASA plans to split astronaut flights between Boeing and SpaceX, with trips to the ISS roughly every six months.