Boeing launches first crewed Starliner spacecraft

We’ve wrapped up our live coverage for the day. You can read more about the Starliner mission here.

Eager to continue following Starliner’s journey? NASA will resume live coverage Thursday at 9:30 a.m. ET on the agency’s website.

Williams and Wilmore are expected to dock with the International Space Station at 12:15 p.m. ET tomorrow.

The hatch between Starliner and the station is expected to be opened at 2 p.m., and the astronaut duo will be welcomed by the seven crew members already aboard the station at 2:20 p.m. ET.

And NASA officials will share the latest details about Starliner’s historic mission at 3:30 p.m. ET Thursday.

Boeing's Starliner lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was designed under the same NASA program as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon — which has already carried 13 missions to orbit for NASA astronauts as well as paying customers.

That’s allowed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which from the outset intended for SpaceX and Boeing to own and operate their spacecraft. The space agency buys flights for its astronauts, and the companies are allowed to sell seats if they want.

SpaceX has taken full advantage of that: It has flown tourists and foreign astronauts to the space station in a partnership with Houston-based company Axiom. SpaceX has also flown a mission for finance billionaire Jared Isaacman called Inspiration 4 — and more are on the schedule.

But Boeing, which has suffered lengthy delays and costly setbacks during Starliner’s development, has been less certain of whether Starliner will be used for joy rides.

“Right now we’re focused on the six missions that we have on contract with NASA,” said Mark Nappi, vice president and Starliner program manager at Boeing, during a news briefing prior to the May 6 launch attempt. “The private astronaut missions are of interest later in the decade — but right now, the focus is on getting certified.”

A snippet from a Starliner overview packet posted to Boeing’s website, however, is a bit more assertive:

“We are selling the extra fifth seat on NASA missions,” the document reads. “Potential customers include commercial and government-sponsored astronauts and even private citizens flying as tourists. Starliner is also planned to be used for crew transportation to Blue Origin’s upcoming Orbital Reef commercial space station.”

Bill Nelson peels a grapefruit on NASA's Columbia space shuttle during an Earth orbit between January 12 and 19, 1986.

Both NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, are former astronauts, so they know what it’s like to make the thrilling journey to space and back — and the long wait to lift off when things don’t go as planned, like the two scrubs Williams and Wilmore faced ahead of today’s successful launch.

Nelson and Bowersox sat next to each other during the news conference.

Selected as an astronaut in 1987, Bowersox flew five times on the space shuttle and once on a Roscosmos Soyuz, logging more than 211 days in space.

Bowersox said Williams and Wilmore probably spent longer than he did in crew quarantine because of the distance between their scrubbed launches.

Nelson trained and flew with the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1986.

The Boeing Starliner spacecraft lands at White Sands Missile Range’s Space Harbor in New Mexico after a test flight, in May 2022.

Today’s launch was a monumental moment for the two astronauts heading for space.

But what goes up must come down.

After Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore spend eight days aboard the International Space Station, they’ll come home in their Starliner capsule.

The earliest possible landing date is June 14, but the astronauts may stay longer on the station because there is nothing “magical” about that return date, NASA officials said Wednesday.

And the vehicle will make its return to Earth unlike any US spacecraft before it.

Rather than splashing down in the ocean, as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and other capsules dating back to NASA’s Mercury Program have done, Starliner is going to hit terra firma.

There are five possible landing sites, generally across the southwestern US: Two in New Mexico, one in Utah, another in Arizona and, finally, one in California.

Why land on land rather than splash down?

Seawater is rough on spacecraft. The salt can corrode components. And then, there’s the sheer hassle of getting ships out to sea to rescue the crew.

Starliner is carrying a crucial replacement pump that helps convert urine on the space station into drinkable water.

The pump failed last week, and since then, urine has been stored in bags on the space station while the crew awaits the replacement pump.

The launch means a lot to Boeing, said Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, for Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program.

He said that the launch was the first step in the program’s mission, and there are many more phases.

Nappi added that for the rest of the year, Boeing is focused on getting certified for the Starliner 1 mission.

In this screen grab from video, the vice president and program manager of the Commercial Crew Program for Boeing Mark Nappi speaks at a press conference in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday.

When asked about the relationship between Boeing and SpaceX, long viewed as a rivalry, Mark Nappi, the vice president and program manager of the Commercial Crew Program for Boeing, said he believes others see it as a competition.

Nappi saw Musk’s congratulatory post on X about the flight.

In this screen grab from video, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Steve Stich speaks during a press conference at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday.

NASA officials shared that astronauts Williams and Wilmore may enjoy a slightly extended stay aboard the International Space Station once they arrive. The earliest possible landing date is June 14.

Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, added that the only issue mission teams are assessing is a system called a sublimator on Starliner, which provides cooling during the launch and landing phase.

The team will assess data of the sublimator to learn more about how the system is functioning for future purposes.

In this screen grab from video, participants speak at a NASA press conference in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday.

NASA officials praised the teams and efforts to get the Boeing Starliner into orbit during a post-launch news conference on Wednesday.

He said that it was “beautiful” to see smiles on astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams faces before liftoff and hear their voices when they were safely in orbit.

Bowersox also commended NASA, Boeing and United Launch Alliance (ULA) teams for troubleshooting ahead of the launch.

He then went on to say that this is just the start of the mission.

Bowersox added, “I’m really looking forward to seeing two US vehicles at the International Space Station.”

In this screen grab from video, NASA administrator Bill Neslon speaks at a press conference at Cape Canaveral, Florida, On Wednesday.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson kicked off the news conference by marking the historic occasion of Starliner’s successful launch.

“The first time that a human was launched into orbit on an American rocket was an Atlas V rocket,” Nelson said. “And now, here all these years later, we’ve got a crew going to the station on an Atlas V.”

Today, Starliner became only the sixth new American spacecraft to carry humans to space after the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle and SpaceX’s Dragon capsules.

Now, Williams and Wilmore will “test this thing from izzard to gizzard” to get Starliner certified for future flights, Nelson said.

Once Starliner is certified, the US will have two ways of reaching the International Space Station, which was why the Commercial Crew Program was started in the first place, Nelson said.

Boeing's test flight dummy “Rosie."

On two previous uncrewed test flights, Starliner has flown with a spacesuit-clad mannequin nicknamed “Rosie” after Rosie the Riveter — the pop icon that represented women taking up manufacturing jobs during World War II.

The test flight dummy even donned the riveter’s classic red bandana.

Rosie’s presence on the lonely test flight missions served several purposes, most notably giving Starliner developers data about the experience inside the capsule thanks to dozens of sensors.

The astronauts spoke about their inanimate predecessor during a recent news conference, though Suni Williams noted Rosie didn’t offer them any data about how comfortable the seats aboard Starliner would be during launch and landing.

“Butch (Wilmore) and I will be your next test dummies,” she said.

Wilmore jumped in to clarify: “Just in case, for those that aren’t familiar: Rosie was a literal dummy — she was, like, not human,” he added.

Boeing Defense, Space and Security CEO Ted Colbert attends the at the Dubai Air Show in Dubai, in November 2023.

Now that Starliner has officially reached space on its first crewed mission, years of work that went into achieving the milestone of the historic maiden voyage have finally come to fruition.

“This is a great start. We look forward to getting the astronauts safely to the space station and back home.”

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, right, watches the launch of Boeing Starliner at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson offered his congratulations on the mission via X, formerly known as Twitter.

SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk, whose company is a director competitor of Boeing’s, offered his congrats on X as well.

Then, Musk posted about the upcoming launch of SpaceX’s mega moon rocket Starship, expected to lift off from the company’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on Thursday.

A post-launch news conference at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is expected to speak along with other agency officials.

Starliner had a successful liftoff and has already conducted its first orbital insertion burn. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are expected to spend one day in orbit before docking with the International Space Station.

The capsule is expected to reach the orbiting laboratory at 12:15 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 6. 

In this screen grab from video, NASA Communications Megan Cruz holds Calypso, the stuffed toy narwhal that is aboard Boeing's Starliner.

There’s a colorful guest riding aboard Starliner with Williams and Wilmore today: Calypso.

The sparkly toy narwhal is serving a key purpose as a zero-G indicator, which floats when Starliner hits space and the crew experiences microgravity.

NASA has a long history of using toys in space as zero gravity indicators.

Williams’ niece and nephew helped her select this particular zero gravity indicator.

She wanted to choose an indicator that raised awareness for how space and ocean research go together.

Williams also named the Starliner capsule Calypso as a nod to explorer Jacques Cousteau and his ship, which he sailed across the globe to share insights about the world’s oceans.

Williams believes Starliner will do the same for space, said Megan Cruz with NASA communications during the live broadcast.

The Starliner spacecraft just experienced its first orbital insertion burn.

This maneuver takes Starliner out of its slightly suborbital trajectory and puts it at an altitude that will allow the spacecraft to catch up with the space station for a rendezvous later tomorrow.

The Starliner spacecraft has officially reached orbit.

Now, Williams and Wilmore have their tablets out and are preparing for the first in a series of burns that will set Starliner on its way to the International Space Station.

In this screen grab from video, Boeing's Starliner is powering through space.

The Starliner spacecraft has officially separated from the Atlas V rocket and is firing its own engines.

Williams and Wilmore are now expected to spend more than 24 hours traveling to the International Space Station, with docking anticipated to occur at 12:15 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Boeing's Starliner launches towards space, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday.

Starliner and the Atlas V rocket just hit “Max Q,” when the vehicle experiences its maximum dynamic pressure during flight.

Put simply: It’s when the rocket is moving at very high speed, at a time when the atmosphere is still pretty thick, putting a lot of pressure on the vehicle. 

Boeing's Starliner crew test flight, is launched on a mission to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday.

Starliner has lifted off on its historic maiden voyage, carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams toward the International Space Station.

The launch marks only the sixth inaugural journey of a crewed spacecraft in US history.

All of the mission teams have participated in the “go/no go” poll, a crucial final step in the preparations for liftoff, and declared that Starliner was “go” for launch.

“Suni and I are honored to share this dream of spaceflight with each and every one of you,” Wilmore said after the poll. “Let’s put some fire in this rocket.”

“Let’s go, Calypso. Take us to space and back,” Williams said, referencing the name she gave to the spacecraft.

The Boeing Starliner spacecraft is lifted at the Vertical Integration Facility on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on April 16.

Although today’s event will feature all the trimmings of a standard astronaut launch (SpaceX has carried out 13 of them in the past four years) — this is not a typical mission.

The inaugural Starliner flight is still considered a test — a step on the way to NASA finally deeming the spacecraft ready for regular operations.

As such, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will put the vehicle through its paces while on board.

NASA recently shared a rundown of some of the items on the checklist:

The Starliner crew module is hoisted in Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility on January 19, 2023, before being mated to a new service module for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test.

For this mission, NASA sees itself as just a customer, buying the use of Starliner from Boeing.

That’s how Boeing’s Starliner contract was originally set up. NASA’s Commerical Crew Progam — which the Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon operate under — was designed to hand over responsibility to the private sector.

But Boeing is also buying some services back from NASA: Namely, in mission control: Boeing is paying NASA for the use of its flight operations team.

But, he emphasized, Boeing is still the top dog when it comes to calling the shots.

The mission management team is still led by a Boeing flight director, Nappi said, and NASA personnel will report up to company officials.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft takes off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in May 2020.

Starliner is the result of Boeing’s efforts to develop a spacecraft to rival SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and expand US options for ferrying astronauts to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Boeing’s competitor under NASA’s commercial program — SpaceX — has become the go-to transportation provider for the space agency’s astronauts.

But once Starliner lifts off, it could be the final major milestone before NASA deems Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft ready for routine operations to deliver astronauts and cargo to the space station.

When NASA’s Space Shuttle program came to an end in July 2011, the space agency lost the ability to fly its own astronauts to and from the International Space Station. After that, astronauts hitched rides aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to the space station.

That all changed after the success of SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission in 2020. And now, Boeing is hoping a successful launch will put Starliner on the path to the same certification that SpaceX’s Dragon capsule received in 2020.

Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance, agreed on the importance of having more than one US spacecraft flying astronauts to the space station.

In this screen grab from video, Boeing's Starship is seen with less than 30 minutes before the launch at Cape Canaveral, in Florida, on Wednesday.

The Boeing spacecraft carrying two NASA astronauts is set for another attempt at its historic crewed maiden voyage in about 30 minutes.

Liftoff is expected at 10:52 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Conditions have been looking favorable this morning so far.

After troubleshooting the issue in May, the space agency said a helium leak recently found within the spacecraft service module is at acceptable levels and did not pose a threat to a mission.

The mission comes after years of development and costly setbacks for Boeing’s Starliner, which aims to compete with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.

An attempt to launch the spacecraft on June 1 was scrubbed just minutes before its scheduled liftoff.

In this screen grab from video, a graphic displays the visibility of Boeing Starliner during launch.

Tory Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance, which built the Atlas V rocket, shared details about Starliner’s unique trajectory during a live NASA broadcast Wednesday morning. After launching from Florida, the vehicle will head north and little bit to the east, he said.

The trajectory was designed to ensure that the crew can safely abort the flight in the event of an anomaly after launch, Bruno said.

“This is a very unique trajectory because it’s flat and long for crew safety,” Bruno said. “All along the southeastern coast of the United States, you have a pretty good chance of seeing it.”

Boeing, NASA, and US Army personnel work around the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft shortly after it landed from a test flight in White Sands, New Mexico, in December 2019.

Make no mistake: Today’s launch is a massive deal for Boeing.

The company’s airplane woes are one thing, but Starliner has had its own issues.

The spacecraft was developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which got rolling in 2014.

That’s when the space agency awarded Boeing and SpaceX contracts to develop spacecraft capable of getting astronauts to the International Space Station, taking the baton from the retired Space Shuttle Program. (Boeing got $4.2 billion, while SpaceX got $2.6 billion.)

Boeing — a close partner of NASA’s practically dating back the agency’s inception — was expected to lead the charge.

But SpaceX emerged as the forerunner, finishing its Dragon development in 2020.

Boeing, however, has faced all sorts of setbacks: A botched test flight in 2019, myriad delays and development hang-ups, and embarrassing missteps. At certain points, some have even questioned whether Boeing would continue Starliner development at all.

For its part, Boeing has always publicly maintained that it was committed to Starliner and the company’s deal with NASA.

And now that a Starliner is sitting on the launchpad ready to carry two astronauts into the unforgiving void of outer space — it’s clear Boeing meant it.

At a recent news conference, Mark Nappi, vice president and Starliner program manager at Boeing, reflected on the spacecraft’s journey:

In this screen grab from video, Boeing's Starliner is seen on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday.

The Boeing spacecraft carrying two NASA astronauts is set for another attempt at its historic crewed maiden voyage.

Liftoff is expected at 10:52 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, are aiming to become the first humans to travel to space in Boeing’s Starliner craft. They are expected to spend just over 24 hours traveling to the International Space Station.

Boeing's Starliner stands on the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday.

After troubleshooting the issue in May, the space agency said a helium leak recently found within the spacecraft service module is at acceptable levels and did not pose a threat to a mission.

Rather than making a replacement to fix the leak, the teams decided that the helium leak is small enough to be manageable, Stich said.

During the launch countdown Wednesday morning, mission teams monitored the leak, and so far, no issues have been reported.

Last week, two crew suitcases for NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were swapped out for a critical part needed at their next destination: the International Space Station.

On May 29, a pump on the station’s urine processor assembly failed.

The pump was expected to perform until the fall, and a replacement was set to fly aboard a cargo resupply mission slated for August. But the pump’s failure “put us in a position where we’d have to store an awful lot of urine,” Weigel said.

Now, the urine has to be stored on board in containers.

In other words, Starliner’s arrival at the station tomorrow couldn’t come at a better time, and ground teams scrambled to make a switch ahead of launch.

A replacement pump was quickly swapped into Starliner’s cargo. The pump weighs about 150 pounds, so the team removed two suitcases from Starliner carrying clothes and toiletries such as shampoo and soaps handpicked by Wilmore and Williams.

There is a contingency supply of generic clothes and toiletries on the space station that the astronaut duo will use instead for their short stay, Weigel said.

In total, Starliner is hauling about 759 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station.

In addition to a replacement pump that will help the closed loop of water continue to flow on the station, the crew is bringing food, clothes, medical supplies, exercise gear, supplies and tools for the vehicle, as well as photo and media equipment.

But some special, more personal items are also packed inside the capsule.

One of those items is a thumb drive, which holds 3,500 images of artwork from children living across 35 US states and 66 different countries.

Wilmore brought two gold rings that resemble the US Navy astronaut pilot wing pin, which he had made for his father and brother, according to NASA. And he is bringing shirts from Tennessee Technological University and the University of Tennessee, his alma maters.

Williams also brought shirts from the US Naval Academy and the Sunita L. Williams Elementary School, located in Needham, Massachusetts, which she considers her hometown, as well as a diver pin and two dog tags from her Labrador retrievers.  

NASA astronaut Suni Williams is seen at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 1.

With this flight, Suni Williams, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1998, will make a bit of history as the mission’s pilot. Few women have joined the first flight of a new spacecraft.

And it won’t be her first entry in the history books.

In 2012, during a prior trip to the International Space Station, Williams became the first person to finish a triathlon in space, during which she simulated swimming using a weight-lifting machine and ran on a treadmill while strapped in by a harness so she wouldn’t float away.

That came after she ran the Boston Marathon from the space station in 2007.

Williams — a native of Needham, Massachusetts — has also spent ample time outside the space station.

During her previous missions, she notched a total of 50 hours and 40 minutes across seven spacewalks, ranking second among female astronauts.

Williams also gave a detailed tour of the space station in 2012, even showing the “orbital outhouse” (aka bathroom). Watch that here.

Ahead of this mission, Williams told reporters that she wasn’t nervous about making the jump from test piloting aircraft to spacecraft.

Williams has traveled to space twice before, once on a NASA space shuttle in 2006 and again on a Russian Soyuz capsule in 2012. She’s logged 322 total days in space.

NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore is seen at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 1.

For Starliner’s debut launch, NASA is sticking with a long tradition of staffing the novel spacecraft with astronauts who have previously trained as military test pilots: Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore.

All that time piloting experimental aircraft just might give these astronauts the proverbial “right stuff.”

Wilmore — a Tennessee native and Navy test pilot — has spent more than 8,000 hours of his life aboard tactical jets, according to NASA.

Before he was selected for NASA’s astronaut corps in 2000, Wilmore was on exchange as flight test instructor at the Air Force Test Pilot School in California.

As an astronaut, Wilmore has already logged 178 days in space during two separate missions and conducted four spacewalks.

Wilmore once recalled a spacewalk experience during a 2018 acceptance speech for the NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award. (Wilmore played football at Tennessee Technological University as an undergrad.)

Wilmore said that, during the spacewalk, he was surprised to find that a radiator on the space station’s exterior was reflective, like a mirror.

Founder and CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk wished Boeing well ahead of today’s launch attempt.

Musk shared a livestream of the launch and said he was “wishing them best of luck!” in a post shared to X, formerly known as Twitter.

SpaceX and Boeing have competed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to provide different ways of reaching the International Space Station.

And SpaceX’s mega moon rocket Starship has been approved by the FAA to lift off on its fourth uncrewed flight test this week, with a launch window opening at 8 a.m. ET Thursday. Launch of the Starship capsule atop a Super Heavy rocket will take place from the company’s private Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

In this screen grab from video, NASA astronauts Suni Williams, left, and Butch Wilmore are seen during launch preparations in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5.

Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are safely in their seats and the hatch of the Starliner capsule has closed, putting the crew one step closer to launch.

NASA astronauts Suni Williams, left, and Butch Wilmore pose for a photo after leaving the operations building for a trip to the launchpad at Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday.

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been preparing for today’s historic flight for a long time — over five years.

The astronaut duo has been involved in every step of the process to get Starliner ready for its inaugural crewed launch.

Starliner was initially expected to launch on May 6, so the astronauts have been in quarantine to protect their health ahead of the mission since late April, said NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, who is slated to serve as pilot for the upcoming Boeing Starliner-1 mission that would follow a successful test flight.

Boeing’s Starliner sits on the launchpad at sunset, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, on Friday, May 31.

Starliner was only about two hours from its first crewed launch attempt on May 6 when engineers identified an issue with a valve on the second stage, or upper portion, of the Atlas V rocket. The entire stack, including the rocket and spacecraft, was rolled back from the launchpad for testing and repairs.

Since then, mission teams have had to work through multiple issues with the capsule and rocket to go for today’s third launch attempt within just a month’s time.

After the initial scrub on May 6, the teams worked through a helium leak on the spacecraft service module, a “design vulnerability” in the propulsion system and an assessment of Starliner’s parachutes.

Several issues also cropped up during the June 1 launch attempt, which was called with less than four minutes left on the countdown clock prior to liftoff.

Early in the countdown, teams reported a loss of data for valves responsible for replenishing the liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel flowing into the Atlas V rocket’s upper stage.

Then, when Starliner shifted from ground power to internal power, there was a slight increase in voltage that turned off the cabin fans, which keep the astronauts cool as they sit in their spacesuits in the capsule.

Quick actions by the mission teams solved both issues within plenty of time to stay on track for launch.

But moments before liftoff, the ground launch sequencer — the computer that tells the rocket to launch — triggered an automatic hold that prevented the launch.

The United Launch Alliance team investigated the issue and replaced the computer over the weekend, and deemed Starliner ready to fly once more.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is seen on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, ahead of the launch on Wednesday.

At the launch site, weather officials have given a 90% chance that conditions will be clear for liftoff.

So far, the only potential concerns are cumulus clouds, according to the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

According to weather constraints shared by Boeing, Starliner can’t take off if cumulus clouds with frozen tops are within 5 to 10 miles (8 to 16 kilometers) of the launchpad.

An alligator swims along the Turning Basin at dawn near Boeing's Starliner spacecraft at Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, on Wednesday.

After a decade of development, years of delays and the last-minute scrub of its latest attempt, the time has finally arrived: Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is set to take off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:52 a.m. ET Wednesday.

If successful, this mission — dubbed the Crew Flight Test — could pave the way for NASA to clear the Starliner for routine operations, giving the United States for the first time two domestic options for ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station. (Currently, NASA must use either SpaceX’s Dragon or a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for these missions.)

But this is still considered a test run.

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are veteran NASA astronauts who will be on board and prepared to take over the autonomous Starliner vehicle if something goes wrong.

Today, Starliner will launch to space atop an Atlas V rocket before the spacecraft breaks away after reaching orbit.

The Starliner will then begin firing its own engines, and Williams and Wilmore are expected spend more than 24 hours aboard the 15-foot-wide, gumdrop-shaped vehicle as it makes its way to the space station.

If everything goes according to plan, the Starliner is expected to dock around 12:15 p.m. ET Thursday. 

Williams and Wilmore expect to spend eight days inside the orbiting laboratory, joining the seven astronauts and cosmonauts already on board.

After that, they’ll get back on Starliner and make the trek home, aiming to land at one of several potential sites across the southwestern United States.