MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The first manned spacecraft of the Boeing company, called Starliner, will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on 31 August, a source in the Russian space and rocket industry said.
In December 2019, the Starliner spaceship set off on its first test flight to the International Space Station, but docking was canceled after Starkiner failed to execute an orbit-insertion burn on schedule.
Boeing is in a race with SpaceX and its Crew Dragon to develop the next capsule to take Western astronauts to the ISS. SpaceX plans to make the first manned flight of the Crew Dragon in the second quarter of 2020 and has its own $2.6 billion crew capsule contract with NASA.
The US Space Shuttle program of manned spaceflights ended in 2011. After that, only Russian Soyuz rockets delivered crews to the ISS.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
