Watch this highlights reel displaying Starliner’s launch day
After years of delays and a number of launch postponements in latest weeks, Boeing Space’s Starliner spacecraft finally transported its first crew to orbit on Wednesday, June 6.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are at the moment on their solution to the International Space Station (ISS) after lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday morning within the Starliner’s maiden crewed take a look at, carried by a ULA Atlas V rocket.
Boeing shared a brief highlights reel (beneath) displaying how the launch day unfolded.
Check out the highlights from at this time's #Starliner #CFT launch atop a @ulalaunch #AtlasV, which lifted off at 10:52 a.m. ET.
Stay tuned for docking with @Space_Station on June 6. pic.twitter.com/8z0KbWxmlO
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) June 5, 2024
The profitable liftoff will come as an enormous aid to everybody concerned, not least Wilmore and Williams, who had already skilled two countdown halts on account of technical points. The most up-to-date of those occurred at the beginning of this month when the launch was scrubbed with simply 3 minutes and 50 seconds remaining earlier than the rocket was set to fireplace up its engines to start the long-awaited mission.
Following Wednesday’s flawless liftoff, the Starliner is now properly into its first crewed take a look at flight and can dock with the area station on Thursday. Wilmore and Williams will spend a few week aboard the orbital outpost earlier than returning residence within the Starliner for a parachute-assisted landing within the south-western U.S.
This is the third time the Starliner has flown to area, however the first flight with a crew aboard. Its first flight came about in 2019 however failed to achieve the right orbit to place it on track for the ISS. The mission surfaced a protracted listing of software program points that needed to be resolved earlier than the spacecraft might fly once more. Eventually it launched once more in 2022 and efficiently docked with the station, paving the way in which for the primary crewed take a look at.
Assuming the Starliner capabilities as anticipated throughout this present mission, NASA will be capable to use the spacecraft for future astronaut flights to and from the area station, giving it one other transportation possibility alongside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which has been carrying crews since 2020.
