Launch in Florida

“Starliner” to take off on manned flight today

(Bild: AFP/Getty Images/Joe Raedle)

After years of delays, the "Starliner" space capsule took off on its first manned test flight at 16:52 CEST on Wednesday. It is to take NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station (ISS). You can follow the flight in the livestream here.

The Boeing-built spacecraft was launched from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida using an Atlas V rocket. Due to problems with the launch vehicle, the launch, which was originally planned for May, had previously been postponed several times.

Project several years behind schedule
The "Atlas" rocket is being built by the United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between aerospace company Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Not only is the program several years behind schedule, it is also already more than 1.5 billion US dollars (equivalent to just under 1.4 million euros) over budget.

The spacecraft built by Boeing will be launched from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida using an "Atlas V" rocket.(Bild: AFP/Getty Images/Joe Raedle)

The "Starliner" has had a long and bumpy journey to the launch pad. Today's launch attempt is almost four weeks later than the originally planned launch on May 6. This was aborted around two hours before lift-off after an anomaly was detected in an oxygen release valve in the upper stage of the "Atlas V" rocket.

The "Atlas V" with the "Starliner" at its top was then rolled off the launch pad into a processing hall where the valve was replaced. During this work, another problem occurred: a slight helium leak in an engine in the service module of the space capsule.

The last launch attempt on June 1 was aborted just a few minutes before the countdown due to a computer problem.