Boeing, the multinational corporation, launched two astronauts on June 5, joining SpaceX as a second taxi service for NASA.
NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams blasted off aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule for the International Space Station on Wednesday. They were the first to fly the new spacecraft.
Wednesday’s launch was the third attempt with astronauts since early May, coming after a pair of rocket-related problems, most recently last weekend. A small helium leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system also caused delays.
The trip by Wilmore and Williams was expected to take 25 hours, with an arrival on Thursday. They will spend just over a week at the orbiting lab before climbing back into the Starliner for a remote desert touchdown in the western U.S. on June 14.
