Boeing Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2: Live updates

Boeing and NASA are getting ready to make a second attempt at launching its Starliner astronaut taxi to the International Space Station. The uncrewed CST-100 Starliner space capsule is scheduled to launch to the space station on July 30 at 2:53 p.m. EDT (1853 GMT), lifting off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

This will be Boeing’s second time launching Starliner on an uncrewed test flight; the first mission, OFT-1, returned to Earth early after it failed to reach the space station in December 2019. NASA conducted major reviews of the Starliner program and identified a total of 80 corrective actions that Boeing needed to take before Starliner could return to flight. If all goes according to plan, Starliner will dock with the International Space Station about 24 hours after it launches, and it will return to Earth on Aug. 5 with a parachute-assisted landing at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

Check back here for live updates on the Boeing Starliner OFT-2 mission.

22:19:22 – August 02, 2021
ATLAS V AND STARLINER ARE “NOW IN LAUNCH POSITION”
Boeing’s Starliner capsule and its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket roll out to their launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Aug. 2, 2021.

(Image credit: NASA via Twitter)
The Atlas V rocket and Starliner spacecraft returned to the launch pad early this morning after waiting out the launch delay inside the Vertical Integration Facility. See photos of their second rollout here.

“Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner is now in launch position on Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida,” Boeing said in an update. “The Starliner, which is mated to the top of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket, rolled to the launch pad on train tracks at a speed of about 1 mph from the Vertical Integration Facility, located about 1 mile from the launch site.”