Boeing's Starliner capsule arrived at the International Space Station Friday night, a huge milestone for the aerospace giant and its quest to fly NASA astronauts to and from orbit.

Starliner lifted off a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Thursday evening, starting a crucial uncrewed mission to the station called Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2). About 22 hours later, Starliner began zeroing in on the ISS, performing a series of fly-arounds, approaches and retreats designed to showcase its rendezvous chops.

Today the Starliner finally linked up with the station, docking at the forward-facing port of its Harmony node.

"Starliner is looking beautiful on the front of the space station," NASA astronaut Robert Hines radioed to Mission Control from the station after docking. “We’re waving. Can you see us?” he joked.

There was only silence from Starliner. The commander’s seat was occupied once again by the mannequin dubbed Rosie the Rocketeer, a space-age version of World War II’s Rosie the Riveter.

Rosie the Rocketeer, the crash test dummy riding inside Boeing's Starliner capsule. (Image credit: Boeing)

It was a monumental moment for Boeing, which signed a multibillion-dollar NASA contract in 2014 to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS using Starliner. Today's docking showed that the capsule can indeed make its way to the orbiting lab — something it failed to do once before.

“These last 48 hours have just been a barnstorm, so it’s going to be very good to sleep tonight,” said Mark Nappi, vice president and director of Boeing’s commercial crew program.

With Starliner’s arrival, NASA finally realizes its longtime effort to have crew capsules from competing U.S. companies flying to the space station.

SpaceX already has a running start. Elon Musk’s company pulled off the same test three years ago and has since launched 18 astronauts to the space station, as well as tourists.

If the rest of Starliner’s mission goes well, Boeing could be ready to launch its first crew by the end of this year. The astronauts likely to serve on the first Starliner crew joined Boeing and NASA flight controllers in Houston as the action unfolded nearly 270 miles (435 kilometers) up.

The space station’s seven astronauts will unload groceries and gear from Starliner and pack it up with experiments. Unlike SpaceX’s Dragon capsule that splashes down off the Florida coast, Starliner will aim for a landing in New Mexico next Wednesday.
-Space/AP