Boeing’s Starliner Finally (Finally) Launches Crewed Test Flight, Smoothly

After years of delays, malfunctions, and two previous scrubbed attempts in the past month, on Wednesday morning Boeing ’s CST-100 Starliner finally launched its crewed test flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.Once again, mission commander Butch Wilmore and mission pilot Suni Williams played cards until Wilmore lost before heading out to the launch pad.

The helium leak that triggered weeks of delays after the first attempt was called off on May 6, was ongoing but “acceptable for flight today,” according to NASA spokeswoman Brandi Deane. So today the clock just kept counting down. At the five-minute mark Wilmore talked about how he and Williams had noticed the American flags everyone was waving at them as they made their way to the launchpad, and the flag on the rocket itself.

As the countdown rolled to zero, the Atlas V rocket stacked beneath Starliner ignited right on schedule, and a jet of fire shot out the bottom of the 172-foot-tall vessel while plumes of smoke and steam billowed out from the launchpad, lifting Starliner, and its test crew off into the sky.

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