Boeing’s first human spaceflight

Two NASA astronauts assigned to Boeing’s first human spaceflight arrived at their launch site Thursday, just over a week before liftoff.

• Boeing’s Starliner capsule is due to blast off May 6 atop an Atlas rocket. Starliner will fly to the International Space Station for a week-long shakedown cruise.
• Boeing is trying to catch up to SpaceX, which has been launching astronauts for NASA since 2020. No one was aboard Boeing’s two previous Starliner test flights.
• One of the two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore (pictured with fellow assignee Suni Williams), said: “Do we expect it to go perfectly? This is the first human flight of the spacecraft. I’m sure we’ll find things out. That’s why we do this.”

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