Starliner capsule with first human crew launched from Florida

(Patria) - Boeing's new astronaut capsule was launched from Florida on a long-delayed first crewed test flight, a milestone in Boeing's ambitions to become a more serious competitor to Elon Musk's SpaceX.

The Starliner CST-100, with two astronauts in the capsule, took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, attached to an Atlas V rocket, which is jointly built and operated by Boeing and Lockheed Martin through their joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA).

The capsule with the crew headed towards the International Space Station (ISS), two years after Starliner completed its first test journey to the orbital laboratory without astronauts.

The docking maneuver will be challenging for Starliner, as will the return to Earth approximately a week later.

With Starliner, Boeing is competing with SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, which has been the only spacecraft for sending astronauts into orbit from American soil since 2020.

Last-minute problems thwarted Starliner's first three launch attempts.

The May 6th launch was postponed two hours before liftoff due to three issues that required another three weeks of work.

Another attempt on Saturday was postponed just four minutes before liftoff due to a problem with the launch computer.

Part of the inaugural Starliner crew of seven are two veteran NASA astronauts: Barry Butch Wilmore (61), a retired US Navy captain and fighter pilot, and Sunita Suni Williams (58), a former Navy helicopter test pilot with experience flying more than 30 different aircraft.



Each of them has spent a total of 500 days in space during two missions to the ISS.

Wilmore is the commander of the flight, and Williams is in the pilot's seat. They are expected to spend about a week on the ISS before returning to Earth.