WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - NASA's test flight to send two astronauts aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station has successfully completed its first stage.
The capsule, carrying Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, reached the orbiting laboratory at 1:34 p.m. ET, Thursday, more than an hour behind schedule. They entered the International Space Station at 3:45 p.m. ET, according to NASA.
During the 26-hour flight, Wilmore and Williams successfully performed manual piloting demonstrations of Starliner and completed a sleep period.
They encountered new issues in the meantime; three helium leaks in the spacecraft.
As Starliner began its approach to the space station, five reaction control system thrusters failed off during flight. The mission team resolved the issues in time, NASA said.
Butch Wilmore is the mission's commander and Sunita Williams its pilot.
If everything works out as planned, the Starliner and its crew will return to Earth for a landing in White Sands, New Mexico, on June 14 from the International Space Station after spending more than a week aboard the microgravity laboratory.
The former Navy test pilots are the first to launch aboard Starliner to the space station as part of the U.S space agency's Commercial Crew Program.
The crew flight test mission makes history in many ways. As the first crewed launch of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, Williams is the first female astronaut to fly on the first flight of a crewed spacecraft. The launch also marks the first crewed launch on the ULA Atlas V rocket and the first crewed launch on an Atlas-family class rocket since Gordon Cooper on the last Mercury program flight aboard 'Faith 7' in May 1963.
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