After numerous postponements, on June 5, 2024, at 17:52:14 Kyiv time, NASA and the United Launch Alliance (ULA) finally launched the first manned mission of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft with astronauts Barry Y. Wilmore and Sunita Williams on board. For both Wilmore and Williams, this is their third spaceflight.
The Boeing Starliner with its own name Calypso was launched from the SLC-41 launch pad of the US Air Force Base at Cape Canaveral by an Atlas V N22 rocket. N22 stands for no main fairing, two GEM 63 solid rocket boosters in an asymmetric configuration, and 2 Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10A engines in the Centaur second stage. The launch went off without a hitch and now Starliner Calypso with astronauts on board is heading to the ISS, where it is expected to arrive in 25 hours.
Initially, the manned launch of the Boeing Starliner under the NASA Commercial Crew Program was planned for 2017, but the first successful Boeing Orbital Flight Test 2 mission took place only in 2022, and the first manned mission is only now. Meanwhile, the SpaceX Dragon 2 has already made 13 successful manned launches both to the ISS and in free flight with commercial astronauts.
The official broadcast of NASA's launch of the Boeing Starliner Calypso is below. The start is at the 4:10:15 mark.