Boeing attempts its first crewed launch of Starliner spacecraft

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.

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. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP/Getty Images

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. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP/Getty Images

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. NASA TV

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. Chris O'Meara/AP

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.