After being canceled twice, the Boeing Starliner space capsule was finally successfully launched into space carrying two. The first mission to bring a human crew to the International Space Station (ISS) arrived 7 years late, while the space capsule project was started in 2010.
The Starliner capsule was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida using an Atlas V rocket by United Launch Alliance (ULA). The two crew that participated in this mission were Barry Wilmore and Sunita William who are NASA astronauts. Starliner is now on its way to the ISS and the crew will return to earth in a week.
The Boeing Starliner spacecraft is one of the other vehicles used by NASA to deliver crews to the International Space Station (ISS) after the Space Shuttle ceased operations almost a decade ago. In addition to Starliner, the United States also uses the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to carry astronauts and supplies to the ISS.
The program ran into various problems that cost Boeing around $1.5 billion. The original purpose of this commercial capsule program was developed to reduce the cost of sending astronauts to the ISS. But now the cost for an astronaut using Starliner is around $90 million which is much more expensive than $55 million using Crew Dragon.
Each Starliner capsule can carry up to 7 astronauts and it can be used up to 10 times. NASA uses two different systems to ensure that if one system has a problem, there is a backup system.
The need for the capsule system is even more urgent after the United States' relationship with Russia is now strained. Delivery using the Soyuz capsule will no longer be possible in the future because Russia will not continue cooperation and will build their own space station as early as 2027.