Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday afternoon despite experiencing helium leaks and malfunctioning thrusters.
The docking was more than an hour later than planned due to troubleshooting of the thrusters. The astronauts were welcomed aboard the ISS by the crew, hugging them as they entered from the Starliner spacecraft.
Boeing received a $4.2 billion contract in 2014 to fly long-duration astronaut missions to the ISS.
The Starliner's arrival at the ISS marked a major milestone for the test flight, which is intended to provide final certification of the transportation system for operational flights to ferry NASA crews for six-month stays at the space station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
Two previous launch attempts were scrubbed due to various issues with the Atlas V rocket and Starliner spacecraft. The first attempt was on May 6, which was canceled due to a suspect oxygen relief valve on the Atlas V rocket's Centaur second stage. The second attempt was on Saturday, less than four minutes before blastoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center due to a ground system computer triggering an automatic abort command that shut down the launch sequence.
The Starliner and crew will remain at the ISS for about a week while they test the spacecraft and its subsystems. The astronauts will also conduct various experiments during their stay at the ISS.
Despite encountering helium leaks and thruster malfunctions, Boeing's Starliner successfully docked at the International Space Station on Thursday afternoon.
