Update June 5, 12:06 p.m.: The Boeing Starliner spacecraft successfully separated from the Centaur upper stage of the Atlas 5 rocket. The spacecraft completed the burn to enter its orbit and then the burn to circularize its orbit.
The third time was the charm for the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. After two failed launch attempts on May 6 and June 1, the Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Pad 41, beginning a more than week-long mission for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
The liftoff took place on June 5 at 10:52 a.m. EDT (1452 UTC), finally marking the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft after years of delays and setbacks. The spacecraft successfully completed its orbital insertion burn about 31 minutes after liftoff and then circularized its orbit with another burn at T+1 hours and 15 minutes into the mission.
“Two courageous NASA astronauts are progressing well on this historic first test flight of a brand new spacecraft,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. “Boeing’s Starliner begins a new chapter of American exploration. Human spaceflight is an adventure — but that’s why it’s worth doing. This is an exciting time for NASA, our commercial partners, and the future of exploration. Go Starliner, Go Butch and Suni!”
Wednesday morning’s launch follows recent damage caused by a problem with the countdown computer on the launchpad, which United Launch Alliance was able to fix on Sunday, June 2.
“I appreciate all the work done by the NASA, Boeing and ULA teams over the past week,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said in a statement before launch. “In particular, the ULA team worked really hard to learn about these issues as quickly as possible, keep the NASA and Boeing teams informed, and provide safety for this next effort. We’ll continue to take this one step at a time.”
In the lead up to the launch attempt, the 45th Weather Squadron had forecast a 90 percent chance of favorable weather at launch, with cumulus clouds the only potential concern. Meteorologists are also keeping an eye on solar activity as some of the sunspots that recently caused auroras around the world are re-emerging this week.
After two successful orbital launches, the two-person crew is set to dock with the ISS on June 6 at approximately 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 UTC). If all goes well with the mission, the crew will return for a landing in White Sands, New Mexico, on June 14.
The June 5 launch came nearly a month after the original launch date of May 6. That launch was marred by a failure of an oxygen pressure relief valve on the upper stage of the Altas 5 rocket. The mission was put on hold for weeks as teams assessed a helium leak on Starliner’s service module.
During the second launch attempt, the countdown reached T-minus 3 minutes and 50 seconds, coming off a planned stop at T-minus 4 minutes, when one of the three ground launch sequencer circuit boards failed to synchronize with the other two, causing the accident.
ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno said that because the mission faced an immediate launch window, there was not enough time to properly evaluate the problem in real time to determine if it could be resolved before launch.
“Frustration lasts about three seconds. And then you immediately get back to work and do your job,” Bruno told reporters on Saturday.
Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Starliner project manager, said there was frustration among his team, too, but that quickly turned to resilience.
“You know when you’re playing a game and you get a bad call, you get a little irritated at first, or a little disappointed at first, but you immediately focus on the next pitch and that’s what our teams do, they focus on the next pitch,” Nappi said. “As we went into launch scrub and launch turnaround, I looked in the control room and everybody had their heads down and was working on the process to get ready for another attempt.”
Starliner’s crew flight test comes more than four years after SpaceX launched its first astronaut mission using its Crew Dragon spacecraft. Both companies won multibillion-dollar contracts from NASA to provide transporters for its astronauts as part of the Commercial Crew Program.
Since the launch of the Demo-2 mission, SpaceX has sent more than 50 people to space on 13 flights, 12 of which went to the ISS. Boeing is working to overcome years of delays caused by a number of technical problems that have cost the company more than $1 billion.
Once the CFT mission is completed, Boeing will work with NASA to certify Starliner for full crew rotation missions, which could begin as early as spring 2025.
