In video: Boeing achieves successful launch of its first manned spacecraft from the United States

American space agency (Nasa) astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams They took off at 10:52 local time from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in the state of Florida (southeast), for a stay of approximately one week in the orbital laboratory.

“Suni and I are honored to share this dream of space flight with each and every one of you,” said Wilmore, commander of the test flight, just before takeoff of the rocket from the United Launch Alliance (ULA) group, the company joint venture formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

“Let’s put some fire on this rocket and push it into the sky,” he said with good humor.

The third time turned out to be the charm for Boeing, after two attempts aborted for technical reasons in one month.

“This is another milestone in this extraordinary history of NASA,” the head of the space agency, Bill Nelson, told reporters.

“And I want to personally congratulate the entire team that went through many trials and tribulations. But they had perseverance. And that’s what we do at NASA: we don’t launch until it’s right to do so,” he noted.
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Starliner becomes the sixth type of American-built spacecraft to carry NASA astronauts, after the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs in the 1960s and 1970s, the space shuttle from 1981 to 2011, and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon starting in 2020.

But Boeing’s troubled space program has faced years of delays and adversity.

While, NASA seeks to certify Boeing as a second commercial operator to transport its crews to the ISS.

“I think about the many bad headlines I read over the years about the Shuttle program, about the International Space Station, and now I look back and see how successful they were,” Mark Nappi, vice president and director of the Shuttle Program, said after the launch. Boeing commercial crew program.

SpaceX, its rival owned by tycoon Elon Musk, has been playing this role in traveling to the ISS for four years.

Both companies received multimillion-dollar contracts in 2014 to develop their manned and autonomously piloted capsules, after the Space Shuttle program came to an end in 2011, which had left the United States temporarily dependent on Russian rockets for its travels.

Boeing, with its 100 years of history, was greatly favored over its then upstart competitor, but its program was falling behind.

Problems with this mission ranged from a software glitch that put the spacecraft on a bad trajectory during its first unmanned test to the discovery on the second attempt that the cabin was filled with flammable electrical insulation tape.

In both cancellations, astronauts Wilmore and Williams were prepared to depart, but were forced to return to strict quarantines in their cabins.

The most recent attempt, last Saturday, was dramatically suspended with less than four minutes left in the countdown, when the ground launch computer went into an automatic pause.
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​Later, it was determined that the problem was due to a faulty power supply.

Wilmore and Williams are two former Navy pilots with two space flights and now they must be in charge of putting the Starliner through its paces, which includes taking manual control of the spacecraft on its way to the ISS.

The ship, named “Calypso” after the ship of the famous oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, is now pursuing the ISS in orbit. It should reach the orbital laboratory at 12:15 on Sunday.

While on the platform, the crew will carry out further tests, such as simulating whether the ship can be used as a safe haven in case of problems at the orbital outpost.

After undocking, Starliner will re-enter the atmosphere and make an assisted landing with a parachute and airbag in the western United States.
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