On Thursday, aerospace company Boeing is set to conduct a critical test flight of its new passenger spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner \u2014 a mission that will launch the gumdrop-shaped capsule to the International Space Station without any people on board. It\u2019s a flight that Boeing desperately needs to go well after a long journey to the launchpad that\u2019s been marked by numerous failures, false starts, and lengthy delays.<\/p>\n

Starliner is, in essence, a space taxi. Designed to carry up to seven passengers, the capsule is meant to launch to orbit on top of an Atlas V rocket, automatically dock with the International Space Station, or ISS, and then eventually land back on Earth again under a suite of parachutes. Once it\u2019s deemed operational, Starliner will primarily transport NASA astronauts to and from the station to help keep the ISS continuously staffed. But before NASA feels comfortable putting people on board, the agency wants Starliner to prove it can safely perform all the major milestones of a human spaceflight mission.<\/p>\n