Two NASA astronauts were sent into space today to begin the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, making a shakedown cruise to the International Space Station and back after years of costly setbacks and two scrubbed countdowns.
United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:52 a.m. ET (7:52 a.m. PT), sending Starliner and its crew — NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams — to the International Space Station.
“Let’s get going,” Wilmore told Mission Control just before launch. “Let’s put some fire in this rocket.”
The Atlas V rose smoothly into a mostly sunny sky, and within minutes, the gumdrop-shaped capsule separated from the rocket’s Centaur upper stage to continue its rise to orbit.
“Two bold NASA astronauts are well on their way on this historic first test flight of a brand-new spacecraft,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a post-launch statement. “Boeing’s Starliner marks a new chapter of American exploration. Human spaceflight is a daring task – but that’s why it’s worth doing. It’s an exciting time for NASA, our commercial partners and the future of exploration.”
Boeing’s effort to get Starliner ready to carry astronauts has suffered through a string of delays and roughly $1.5 billion in cost overruns (which Boeing has had to cover under the terms of its decade-old $4.2 billion fixed-price contract with NASA).
Two earlier attempts over the past month to launch this Crew Flight Test, or CFT, were due to problems with the Atlas V launch system rather than with Starliner. The first attempt was called off on May 6, two hours before liftoff, due to concerns about a valve on the Atlas V’s Centaur upper stage. The second try was scrubbed on June 1, with less than four minutes left in the countdown, when an alarm was triggered due to a faulty power supply in one of the launch control computers.
United Launch Alliance’s team replaced the hardware and verified that the system was “good to go,” in the words of the company’s CEO, Tory Bruno. ULA, Boeing and NASA then gave the go-ahead for today’s countdown. “As you might imagine, there’s lots of pressure to just go,” Bruno said in a posting to the X social-media platform. “But that’s not what we’re here for.”
Starliner had previously been through two uncrewed flight tests — an initial test that fell short of full success in 2019, and a do-over that reached the space station and met its objectives in 2022. This is the first time Starliner has carried actual astronauts rather than test dummies. This was also the first time an Atlas V launched a spacecraft with a crew.
CFT’s main objective is to have the crew verify that all of Starliner’s systems work as expected. They’ll run through tests during the 25-hour cruise to the International Space Station, and during what’s envisioned as an eight-day stay aboard the station.
“They’re going to test this thing from izzard to gizzard,” Nelson said at a briefing.
Wilmore and Williams will also deliver about 800 pounds of mementos, supplies and equipment, including a replacement pump for the station’s urine-recycling system.
At the end of their orbital stay, Wilmore and Williams will climb back into their reusable Starliner capsule — which has been christened Calypso, in honor of the ship used by the late ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau. Then they’ll descend to a parachute-aided, airbag-cushioned touchdown in the western U.S., with the precise landing site to be determined by the timing of their departure.
When CFT is finished, NASA and its partners will evaluate Starliner’s performance and make adjustments in the design or procedures as necessary. In the months ahead, NASA is aiming to have Starliner certified so that it can take its place alongside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon as a commercial “space taxi” for ferrying astronauts and supplies to and from orbit on a regular basis.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing two U.S. vehicles at the International Space Station,” Ken Bowersox, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, said at today’s post-launch briefing. “I know Butch and Suni will probably get a kick out of that, if they get a chance to look out the windows and see a Dragon there, see a Starliner there. It’s something that I think all of us should be proud of.”
