The ULA Atlas V rocket finally launched the Boeing Starliner spacecraft carrying two astronauts towards the ISS.

After several delays, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket finally launched the Boeing Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 Starliner spacecraft this Wednesday carrying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” ” Williams in Manned Flight Test (CFT).

After the separation of Atlas V, The Starliner engines turned on and continued its flight into orbit towards the ISS.. CFT is ULA’s first crewed launch. The launch took place from Cosmodrome 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Center in Florida.

The CFT is the latest test designed to demonstrate the full end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system to transport crews to and from the space station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The unique Atlas configuration for Starliner includes a twin-engine Centaur upper stage, providing the performance needed to shape a trajectory to ensure crew safety; a launch vehicle adapter that structurally links the Starliner to the Atlas V rocket for ascent; 1.8 meter long aerodynamic skirt to improve the aerodynamic performance, stability and load of the Atlas V; and an emergency detection system that provides an additional layer of safety for astronauts traveling on the rugged Atlas V rocket.

CFT connects the history of the Atlas with the current rocket. The first orbital space flights of American astronauts in the 1960s were carried out as part of Project Mercury. using Atlas rockets from Cape Canaveral. That legacy continues with the Atlas V launch teams from the United States.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program works with the American aerospace industry through a public-private partnership. launching astronauts on American rockets and spacecraft from US territory. The program’s goal is to provide safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation during missions to space stations, allowing additional time for research.

Almost 10 years ago, in September 2024, NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX to transport North American astronauts from the United States. with its technologies on the ISS and thereby stop depending on Russia. A $4.2 billion contract with Boeing and another $2.6 billion with SpaceX returned to private companies tasks that, since 2011, with the withdrawal of the space shuttle, had been in the hands of Russia’s Roscosmos and its Soyuz spacecraft, representing costs about 70 million dollars for each astronaut delivered to the ISS.

SpaceX sent the first astronauts into space on the Crew Dragon ship in May 2020., just four years ago. Since then, its ships have already participated in 13 manned space flights, 12 of them to the ISS. The last one, in March last year, with four astronauts on board. Together with them there are already 50 people whom SpaceX has sent into space over these four years.

The manned flight test mission made history for several reasons. This was the first manned launch of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. Williams is the first female astronaut on the first manned space flight.. The launch also marks the first crewed launch of a ULA Atlas V rocket and the first crewed launch of an Atlas family rocket since Gordon Cooper’s final flight of the Mercury program aboard Faith 7 in May 1963.

The flight test, which began Wednesday, is Boeing’s second flight to the ISS and third overall for Starliner, following Orbital Flight Test-2, an uncrewed mission in May 2022, and Orbital Flight Test, an unmanned crewed mission in December 2019. This is a Starliner flight. Together with astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, they will arrive at the ISS and stay for about a week aboard the space microgravity laboratory.