Boeing arrives in space

The Boeing Starliner has had more than its fair share of troubles – but it’s just docked with the International Space Station for the first time. 

The eagle has landed 

Boeing’s voyages into space haven’t always gone smoothly. The aviation firm has partnered with NASA to build a passenger spacecraft capable of docking with the ISS. But the partnership’s first efforts resulted in a swing and a miss – the craft took off fine, but never quite managed to hit the dizzying heights required. 

Now though, the Starliner craft has finally reached its goal. Keep your delays, keep your failures – one success is everything in the race for space. Even if the successful flight still developed an error… 

There’s a Starliner, waiting in the sky 

So what makes the Starliner worth the expense? The craft is designed to be capable of shuttling passengers to and from the ISS. Onboard this successful docking was a mannequin, Rosie the Rocketeer, whose primary job was to demonstrate how comfortable the Starliner might be for potential passengers. If she could talk, Boeing is pretty sure Rosie would’ve said she loved it.  

It’s not necessarily the next great leap, but piece by piece the foundations of humanity’s future in space are coming together. From commercial passenger planes to an orbiting docking station and some whacky plans for settlements on the moon, the future is now.