BOEING'S STARLINE SPACECRAFT SENDS FIRST ASTRONAUT CREW TO ORBIT

Boeing's new Starliner capsule flew its first crew of astronauts to space on Wednesday from Florida in a much-delayed test mission to the International Space Station, a milestone in the aerospace giant's ambitions to step up its competition with Elon Musk's SpaceX. The CST-100 Starliner, with astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams aboard, lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, strapped to an Atlas V rocket furnished and flown by the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA).

The gumdrop-shaped capsule and its crew was headed for a rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) following years of technical problems, delays and a successful 2022 test mission to the orbital laboratory without astronauts aboard.

On Wednesday, the Atlas V's engines thundered to life in flaming clouds of exhaust and coolant-water vapor as the spacecraft roared off its launch pad into sunny skies from Florida's Atlantic Coast.

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