LAUNCH DAY! Starliner to send NASA astronauts to space for the first time. What to know about Florida liftoff

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The first-ever crewed launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is scheduled for Monday night, lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.

The launch is set for 10:34 pm at Space Launch Complex 41.

The Starliner capsule’s first crewed flight test has been delayed for nearly a year as Boeing grapples with continued technical issues. The project is running years behind schedule.

NASA turned to US companies for astronaut rides after the space shuttles were retired. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has made nine taxi trips for NASA since 2020, while Boeing has managed only a pair of unoccupied test flights.

If Monday’s launch goes well, NASA can alternate between Boeing and SpaceX to get astronauts to and from the space station.

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No one was aboard Boeing’s two previous Starliner test flights. The first, in 2019, was hit with software trouble so severe that its empty capsule couldn’t reach the station until the second try in 2022. Then last summer, weak parachutes and flammable tape cropped up that needed to be fixed or removed.

After the launch, Starliner should reach the space station in roughly 26 hours. Starliner will remain docked for eight days before landing in New Mexico or elsewhere in the American West.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.