Boeing to launch Starliner capsule Thursday to Space Station

Boeing is going to launch a Starliner space capsule on Thursday to the International Space Station in a crucial test of its ability to safely fly to the orbiting outpost.

The much-delayed launch will be Boeing's third attempt to complete an uncrewed trip to and from the space station, after the company was sidelined by software glitches and issues with the spacecraft's fuel valves. The test flight is part of Boeing's contract with NASA and is an important step in certifying the capsule to carry astronauts into space.

The Starliner capsule is scheduled to lift off Thursday at 6: 54 p.m. EDT from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft will launch atop an Atlas V rocket and will dock with the space station about 24 hours later.

There will not be any human passengers on board, but the stakes are high for Boeing. The company is significantly behind its rival SpaceX, which is also under contract with NASA to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.

SpaceX completed an unpiloted test flight of its own Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2019 and successfully flew two astronauts to the space station the following year. The company has carried out five fully operational flights to the orbiting lab since then.

Software problems prevented the Starliner capsule from docking at the space station during an initial test flight in 2019. Fuel valve issues discovered last summer thwarted a second attempt and caused an additional nine months of delays.

Both Boeing and NASA say the problems have been fixed and they are ready to launch.

Butch Wilmore, a NASA astronaut who is slated to fly on the Starliner's first crewed mission, said Wednesday in a news briefing that we wouldn't be here right now if we weren't confident that this would be a successful mission.

The flight, known as Orbital Flight Test 2 or OFT 2, requires the spacecraft to autonomously rendezvous and dock to the International Space Station. The capsule will spend around five days at the orbiting outpost before returning to Earth. The Starliner capsule was designed to land under the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, unlike SpaceX's Crew Dragon craft, which was built to splash down the ocean.

The Starliner spacecraft is expected to carry more than 800 pounds of cargo to the space station, including a mannequin nicknamed Rosie the Rocketeer in one of the capsule's seats. The dummy astronaut is equipped with 15 sensors that will collect data throughout the flight, according to NASA.

Both Boeing's space shuttle and SpaceX's Crew Dragon were developed under NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which was set up to help fund the creation of alternative ways to reach low-Earth orbit after the space agency retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011. NASA awarded Boeing $4.2 billion in 2014 as part of the program, and SpaceX received $2.6 billion that same year.