Boeing's Starliner Spacecraft Successfully Docked to the ISS

Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft departed for its second test flight and successfully reached the International Space Station for the first time. On May 20, the spacecraft docked itself to the ISS's Harmony module to unload the cargo it delivered to space.

Starliner is Boeing's spacecraft that, together with SpaceX's Crew Dragon, was selected by NASA to participate in the Commercial Crew Program to develop transportation systems and transfer astronaut crews from the USA to the International Space Station and vice versa.

This is the spacecraft's second flight after an unsuccessful one in 2019 when Starliner failed to get into the right orbit it needed to reach the ISS.

During the second launch, the Atlas V rocket took Starliner to space. Once the spacecraft separated from the rocket, it fired its own thrusters to get into the proper orbit. This was not a perfect flight, though. Two of the 12 thrusters failed and cut off earlier than they were supposed to. However, the Starliner successfully completed the maneuver and finally docked to the Harmony module of the ISS.

Although there was no crew aboard Starliner, there was a mannequin named Rosie the Rocketeer, which can monitor the vital parameters during the flight.