NASA Boeing Starliner Crew Flight finally launched after two scrubs

NASA, Boeing, and United Launch Alliance (ULA) have finally launched the Starliner Crew Test Flight en route to the Space Station. The launch comes after two scrubs and a month-long fixes to the launch vehicle, spacecraft, and ground systems.

The ULA’s Atlas V rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Starliner spacecraft is carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to International Space Station.

This is the first crewed launch of Boeing’s Starliner capsule and both of these astronauts became its first crew. The launch was also the first crewed flight on top of the ULA Atlas V rocket. It is the first in the Atlas family class rocket since Gordon Cooper on the last Mercury program flight in May 1963. The weather remained 90 percent favorable for this liftoff.

After orbit insertion, the Crew is on a journey of around 25.5 hours and is expected to arrive at the station at 12:15 p.m. EDT, Thursday, June 6.

On May 6, Boeing Starliner attempted its first liftoff but was scrubbed due to a malfunction in Atlas V’s Centaur liquid oxygen self-regulating valve.

After a month, the company decided to launch this mission on June 1 but once again met a scrub due to an issue identified in a single ground power supply within one of the three redundant chassis that provides power to a subject of computer cards controlling various systems.

That includes the card responsible for the stable replenishment topping valves for the Centaur upper stage.

(source)