Washington [USA], June 6: Boeing's Starliner spacecraft lifted off to the International Space Station (ISS) for its first crewed test flight in April, the US space agency NASA said.
The CST-100 Starliner, with two astronauts aboard, lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, strapped to an Atlas V rocket furnished and flown by the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA).
The gumdrop-shaped capsule and its crew were headed for a rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS), two years after the Starliner completed its first test voyage to the orbital laboratory without astronauts aboard. Docking maneuvers with crew will pose another test for Starliner, followed roughly a week later by the test of returning to Earth.
Boeing intends for Starliner to compete with SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, which since 2020 has been NASA's only vehicle for sending ISS crew members to orbit from US soil.
Last-minute issues had nixed the Starliner's first two crewed launch attempts. A May 6 countdown was halted two hours before liftoff over three issues that required weeks of extra scrutiny. Another try last Saturday was halted less than four minutes before liftoff because of a glitch with a launchpad computer.
On Wednesday, the Atlas V's engines thundered to life in flaming clouds of exhaust and coolant-water vapor as the spacecraft roared off its launch pad into the sky from Florida's Atlantic Coast.
The single-engine Atlas V upper stage was expected to separate from the rocket's lower section about four minutes into flight and carry the Starliner farther into space, where it was due to separate from the upper stage about 15 minutes later.
The inaugural crew for the seven-seat Starliner includes 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.
Source: Qatar Tribune