The American Boeing company has launched its Starliner capsule towards the International Space Station (ISS) with two Nasa astronauts aboard.
It’s the first time the vehicle has been entrusted to carry people after coming through a long and tortuous development programme.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will be testing the capsule on a mission that’s expected to last just over a week.
Starliner is scheduled to dock with the space station on Thursday.
The capsule went up from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, riding a United Launch Alliance Atlas rocket.
The 12-minute powered ascent looked flawless.
Moments before lift-off, Commander Wilmore called out to thank all those who had worked to make the mission possible. Alluding to past difficulties, he said: “When the going gets tough – and it often does – the tough get going, and you have.”
Starliner’s pilot Suni Williams chimed in: “Go ‘Calypso’! (the name of the capsule). Take us to space and back.”
Starliner now has to raise itself to the orbit of the ISS, which circles the Earth at an altitude of roughly 400km (250 miles).
In the 24 hours this will take, Wilmore and Williams plan to put the vehicle through its paces, including taking manual control of the flight systems.
