Boeing Faces Huge Test With the Launch of Starliner
The spacecraft is set to blast off Friday. Success could bring manned NASA flights next year, while failure means more bad news for a troubled company.
The CST-100 Starliner sits atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Dec. 4.
Photographer: Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images
NASA’s effort to resume flying American astronauts on American spacecraft—something that hasn’t happened since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011—faces a major test this weekend.
Over the past decade, a lot of attention has been paid to billionaire space entrepreneurs like Elon Musk. His company, SpaceX, has been launching payloads into low Earth orbit for years, replete with balletic booster landings and even a space going Tesla Roadster.