​'Historic mission': Boeing's Starliner capsule to launch astronauts to space station

After years of delays and stumbles, Boeing is finally poised to launch astronauts to the International Space Station for Nasa. It's the first flight of Boeing's Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of Nasa pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station. (Photo/Agencies)

Nasa turned to US companies for astronaut rides after the space shuttles were retired. Elon Musk's SpaceX has made nine taxi trips for Nasa since 2020, while Boeing has managed only a pair of unoccupied test flights. Provided this tryout goes well, Nasa will alternate between Boeing and SpaceX to get astronauts to and from the space station. (Photo/Agencies)

White with black and blue trim, Boeing's Starliner capsule is about 10 feet (3 metres) tall and 15 feet (4.5 metres) in diameter. It can fit up to seven people, though Nasa crews typically will number four. The company settled on the name Starliner nearly a decade ago, a twist on the name of Boeing's early Stratoliner and the current Dreamliner. (Photo/Agencies

Veteran Nasa astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are retired Navy captains who spent months aboard the space station years ago. They joined the test flight after the original crew bowed out as the delays piled up. Wilmore, 61, is a former combat pilot from Mount Juliet, Tennessee, and Williams, 58, is a helicopter pilot from Needham, Massachusetts. The duo have been involved in the capsule's development and insist Starliner is ready for prime time, otherwise they would not strap in for the launch. (Photo/Agencies)

No one was aboard Boeing's two previous Starliner test flights. The first, in 2019, was hit with software trouble so severe that its empty capsule couldn't reach the station until the second try in 2022. Then last summer, weak parachutes and flammable tape cropped up that needed to be fixed or removed. (Photo/Agencies)

Starliner will blast off on United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It will be the first time astronauts ride an Atlas since Nasa's Project Mercury, starting with John Glenn when he became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. Sixty-two years later, this will be the 100th launch of the Atlas V, which is used to hoist satellites as well as spacecraft. (Photo/Agencies)

Both companies' capsules are designed to be autonomous and reusable. This Starliner is the same one that made the first test flight in 2019. Unlike the SpaceX Dragons, Starliner has traditional hand controls and switches alongside touchscreens and, according to the astronauts, is more like Nasa's Orion capsules for moon missions. (Photo/Agencies)

Nasa gave Boeing, a longtime space contractor, more than $4 billion to develop the capsule, while SpaceX got $2.6 billion. SpaceX already was in the station delivery business and merely refashioned its cargo capsule for the crew. (Photo/Agencies)