Boeing's Starliner docks with ISS in unmanned flight test

Boeing's unmanned Starliner spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) late Friday for the first time.

The CST-100 Starliner traveled for nearly 26 hours after the capsule was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in the US state of Florida.

The capsule reached the ISS at 8:28 p.m. EDT (00:28 GMT Saturday) as the two vehicles flew 271 miles (436 km) over the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia, according to commentators on a live NASA webcast of the linkup.

The ship carried about 225 kilograms of NASA cargo and crew supplies and more than 130 kilograms of Boeing cargo.

It marked the first time spacecraft from both of NASA's Commercial Crew Program partners were physically attached to the space station at the same time. A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule has been docked at the space station since delivering four astronauts to the ISS in April.

Successful Starliner docking comes after series of problems

A series of problems had plagued the launch of the Starliner, which was originally due to set off in July 2021. The mission was postponed several times, due to problems after the arrival of Russian research module Nauka, and later because of technical issues with the Starliner's propulsion system valves.

In a first test flight in December 2019, the spacecraft did not make it to the ISS, partly because of a problem with the automatic ignition of the drives.

Boeing intends to use the Starliner to transport astronauts to the ISS in future, providing an alternative to the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

The Starliner is a partially reusable, next-generation spacecraft consisting of a reusable crew capsule and a service module to be launched by rocket. It will be able to carry up to four crew members to the station.

tg/wd (dpa, AP, Reuters)