The Launch of Private Human Space Travel from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station: Ten Years of Problems for a Big Crunch

At long last, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is ready to launch humans to space. Tonight, a vehicle carrying two NASA astronauts is set to lift off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in the culmination of a ten year odyssey. Boeing hopes that its own promised era of private human space travel can begin.

NASA has two different US-crewed vehicles that are important for them, according to a news conference held on May 3. “This crewed flight test is a critical stepping stone to reaching that broader goal.”

The outsourcing of flights to the International Space Station was done to allow NASA to focus on other things, like returning humans to the moon and eventually to Mars. “The whole concept is to get to a point where NASA is freed up to think about the next horizon beyond the space station,” says Daniel Dumbacher, chief executive officer of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

SpaceX, which received an initial $2.6 billion as part of the program, has already fulfilled its side of the bargain. In 2020, its Crew Dragon spacecraft launched its first humans to space for NASA, and it has since carried nearly 50 people—both government astronauts and paying customers, such as the US billionaire Jared Isaacman—into space. Boeing, which received $4.2 billion, has had a much more troubled path with Starliner.

The vehicle was supposed to be launched in the first quarter of the year. When it did launch on a test flight, it entered the wrong route and didn’t reach the International Space Station. It would take three years later in 2022, before it was possible to achieve this goal. “It’s been hugely embarrassing for Boeing,” says Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The issues have been exacerbated by the ongoing issues with the separate aviation branch of the company, including two of the company’s Boeing 737 Max planes being lost in accidents in 2018 and 2019, an exit door blowing off one of the planes in January, and multiple whistleblowers—two of whom subsequently died—coming forward to air concerns.

The launch will take place on Monday, May 6 at 10:34 pm and is being planned by Boeing and NASA. You can listen to the launch on the livestream. NASA will broadcast it on its official website as well as on NASA+, the agency’s subscription service. The NASA app gives you access to the stream on mobile. You can also catch up on it here.