Boeing's Starliner launches on historic first crewed flight

By James Rogers

The Starliner launch marks an important milestone for Boeing and NASA

Boeing Co.'s Starliner spacecraft has launched on its historic first crewed flight, carrying two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

The spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 10:52 a.m. Eastern Time. Starliner reached orbit about 14 minutes later.

"#Starliner ascends to the heavens!" wrote NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Congratulations to @NASA, @BoeingSpace, and @ulalaunch. Today's launch is a milestone achievement for the future of spaceflight. Butch and Suni-safe travels through the stars. See you back home."

Related: First crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner scrubbed 2 hours before takeoff

Two previous crewed Starliner launch attempts had been scrubbed. The initial launch attempt on May 6 was scrubbed two hours before it was scheduled to liftoff due to concerns over an oxygen release valve on the Atlas V. The launch was then targeted for May 17 to enable a valve replacement, before being pushed back to May 21 to allow additional testing. Then NASA pushed the launch back to no earlier than May 25 before another delay. A second launch attempt on June 1 was scrubbed just minutes before liftoff.

Wednesday's launch marks the first time that NASA has three crewed vehicles in orbit - Starliner, SpaceX Crew Dragon and the ISS.

The first crewed Starliner mission has faced a number of delays in recent years, so Wednesday's launch marked an important milestone for NASA, Boeing (BA) and their partners. The launch is part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which partners with the private space industry in the U.S. to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

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The spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams is expected to dock with the orbiting space lab Thursday. Starliner is expected to be docked at the ISS for at least eight days, before carrying Wilmore and Williams back to earth.

The mission is the third trip to space for both astronauts. During the Starliner test flight, mission commander Wilmore and pilot Williams will work with Boeing to test the "end-to-end capabilities" of Starliner, from prelaunch to docking at the ISS and from undocking to landing and recovery, according to Boeing. "Following a successful test, NASA will work to complete certification of the Starliner spacecraft and systems for regular crew rotation missions to the space station," Boeing said on its website.

ULA was set up as a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) in 2006. Since then, the company's Delta and Atlas rockets have been used to send more than 150 missions into orbit.

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In 2019, an uncrewed Starliner made its first test flight to the ISS, but docking with the space station was canceled because of an incorrectly set clock on the capsule. The second uncrewed flight test, Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2, successfully reached the International Space Station and returned to Earth in 2022.

Boeing shares are up 0.1% and Lockheed Martin shares are down 0.5%.

This is a busy week for milestone space launches. Rival SpaceX is targeting Thursday for the fourth uncrewed flight test of the company's giant Starship and Super Heavy Rocket.

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"Congratulations to @NASA, @BoeingSpace and @ULAlaunch on this morning's launch to the @space_station, and Godspeed to Butch, Suni and Starliner on your flight!" wrote SpaceX president and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell on X.

-James Rogers

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06-05-24 1156ET

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