Starliner spacecraft successfully launches on first crewed mission

After a multitude of delays to the program, the first crewed Starliner took off from Cape Canaveral at 10:52am ET on Wednesday (June 5^th) on an Atlas V rocket, carrying veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, reaching orbit 12 minutes later. Following a 25-hour journey, the spacecraft is due to rendezvous with the ISS later today (June 6^th), where Wilmore and Williams will spend about a week on station before returning to Earth. Starliner is also transporting about 345kg of cargo to the ISS.

"This crew flight test represents the beginning of a new era of space exploration as we watch astronauts Wilmore and Williams put Boeing's Starliner through its paces on the way to the International Space Station," said Ted Colbert, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security. "This is a great start. We look forward to getting the astronauts safely to the space station and back home."

In development since 2010, Starliner was chosen alongside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon as the second privately operated vehicle for transferring crew to and from the ISS. However, this first crewed launch comes seven years after Starliner’s original target date, following a catalogue of delays.