After two failed attempts, Boeing's crewed spacecraft Starliner has now been launched into space.
The spacecraft and its two astronauts – Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore – are scheduled to dock with the International Space Station ISS according to plan. The journey is expected to take 25 hours, with arrival on Thursday.
The test flight – already delayed for several years – is described as an important step for NASA. The US space agency has long been looking for another private partner to take astronauts to ISS, something that Elon Musk's Space X succeeded with in 2020.
The launch on Wednesday was carried out just before 5:00 PM Swedish time from Florida in the USA, and was the third crewed attempt since the beginning of May. Previous launches have been aborted due to technical problems.
The astronauts will be on ISS for about a week and are scheduled to return to Earth on June 14.