Boeing’s Starliner capsule set for launch of first crewed space flight

Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsule is poised for launch on Saturday in a much-delayed first crewed test flight, a milestone in the beleaguered aerospace giant’s aim to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the astronaut launch business.
The CST-100 Starliner with two astronauts aboard is due for liftoff at 12:25 p.m. ET (1625 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, strapped to an Atlas V rocket from Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA).
A May 6 countdown was halted just two hours before launch time over a faulty pressure valve on the Atlas rocket. A helium leak and another issue subsequently were detected in Starliner’s propulsion system. All have been resolved, according to Boeing and NASA.
“This is a test flight, we know we’re going to learn some things,” Boeing’s commercial crew vice president Mark Nappi said during a news conference on Friday.
The gumdrop-shaped capsule and its crew are bound for the International Space Station (ISS), two years after the Starliner completed its first test voyage to the orbital laboratory without astronauts aboard.