An Atlas rocket has launched with astronauts aboard for the first time since Gordon Cooper’s final Mercury flight in his Faith 7 capsule on May 15, 1963 (powered by an Atlas LV-3B 130-D). The Atlas V rocket that launched today (June 5), manufactured by United Launch Alliance and powered at liftoff by a Russian-built RD-180 first-stage engine, carried Boeing’s Starliner crew ferry ship to orbit following multiple launch delays over the past several days. The spacecraft departed from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Pad 41 (a few miles from Cooper’s 1963 launch site) at 10:52 a.m. EDT and is considered a “shakedown” flight to the International Space Station.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/long-awaited-starliner-launch-breaks-a-six-decade-draught