Boeing Crew Flight Test
Updated: Wikipedia source
Boeing Crew Flight Test (Boe-CFT) was the first crewed mission of the Boeing Starliner capsule. Launched on June 5, 2024, the mission flew a crew of two NASA astronauts, Barry E. Wilmore and Sunita Williams, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to the International Space Station. The mission was meant to last eight days, ending on June 14 with a landing in the American Southwest. However, Starliner's thrusters malfunctioned as it approached the ISS. After more than two months of investigation, NASA decided it was too risky to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth aboard Starliner. Instead, the Boeing spacecraft returned uncrewed on September 7, 2024, and successfully landed at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. The astronauts rode down aboard SpaceX Crew-9 on March 18, 2025. Originally scheduled for launch in 2017, Boe-CFT experienced numerous delays. The spacecraft's two preceding uncrewed orbital flight tests, Boe‐OFT and Boe‐OFT‐2, were conducted in 2019 and 2022 respectively. Starliner was placed atop the Atlas V launch vehicle on April 16, 2024, but the mission's launch was repeatedly postponed by technical problems. An oxygen valve problem on United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Atlas V rocket scrubbed the first launch attempt on May 7. A second launch attempt on June 1 was scrubbed when a ground computer failed. Subsequent delays were caused by helium leaks in the Starliner's service module; helium leaks would continue to be a problem throughout the mission. The third launch attempt on June 5 at 14:52:15 UTC (10:52:15 am EDT local time at the launch site) was successful.