Boeing Starliner finally takes people to space: how to watch the launch tonight

The Boeing Starliner began life in 2010, when it was selected by NASA to be the next reusable transport to the International Space Station. It took more than a decade, but Starliner will finally make its first crewed trip to the ISS on Monday night, and you can watch it happen.

NASA scheduled the launch for 10:34 pm ET/7:34 pm PT on May 6 from Space Launch Complex-41 in Florida’s Cape Canaveral. The Starliner will launch with an Atlas V rocket created by United Launch Alliance, which is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Traveling with the Starliner are astronauts Sunita (Suni) Williams and Barry (Butch) Wilmore.

NASA says the missions will take astronauts to the ISS for just over a week to test the Starliner spacecraft and its subsystems before returning to Earth. The test is the final step in certifying the Starliner for repeated use on transportation missions to and from the ISS. If all goes according to plan, the Starliner should arrive at the ISS approximately 26 hours after launch.

This is the first new spacecraft to head to the ISS since SpaceX Demo-2 made the same trip in 2020.

“The arrival of a new vehicle, the first manned flight of a next-generation spacecraft, is something really important,” said Michael Barratt, one of the seven residents of the ISS. “You don’t leave anything to chance.”

A mission that has been 14 years in development

The Starliner was initially conceived as a commercial effort to put more people into space. In 2014, NASA turned to Boeing and SpaceX, making the Starliner one of the first privately built spacecraft to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA wanted to rely more on private companies to build and maintain such spacecraft rather than doing all the work itself.

However, Starliner had to learn to walk before he could run. Initial test flights were delayed for various reasons, from unfavorable weather conditions to software issues. Unmanned test flights were delayed again in 2021 and eventually pushed back to 2022 for myriad reasons.

The unmanned test flight was finally launched on May 19, 2022 and completed its mission a week later. It was a huge victory for the Boeing crew, opening the door to a manned mission to the ISS. NASA was pretty excited about this, too. But that launch was delayed due to several problems, including some with the Atlas V rocket that would be responsible for launching the Starliner.

The delays have now passed and the rocket is ready for launch.

How to watch the Boeing Starliner launch

NASA is live streaming the event from its YouTube channel. The direct link to the video is here. NASA will begin coverage at 5:45 p.m. ET this afternoon and will broadcast during the launch with commentary from Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith.

A few other YouTube channels will also be livestreaming the event, including SpaceX, Space.com’s VideoFromSpace channel, and the Associated Press YouTube channel. There are several more as well, so browse YouTube to watch Starliner live streams and choose the one you like best.