Boeing set to retry test flight in bid to take on SpaceX

Boeing is slated to launch its long-anticipated Starliner spacecraft — which is built to carry NASA astronauts — on an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station, a follow-up to the company's botched first attempt 18 months ago, tomorrow. It will be a decisive moment for Boeing and NASA, as the traditional aerospace giant seeks to join SpaceX in ferrying people to the station.

The Starliner was scheduled to launch from Florida Friday afternoon and dock with the ISS on Saturday. But when a new laboratory module from Russia, called Nauka, docked at the space station Thursday morning, the module's thrusters began unexpectedly firing. Though NASA confirmed no one was in danger and ground teams regained control of the space station after about an hour, Starliner's take off will be delayed in order to allow mission control to "continue working checkouts of the newly arrived Nauka module and to ensure the station will be ready for Starliner's arrival."