On December 20, 2019, the Starliner capsule, made by Boeing, a private company, was launched into space as an uncrewed test flight on the Atlas V rocket, which is used by the ULA (United Launch Alliance). The launch went well, but it didn't reach the ISS as its internal clock was off by 11 hours, which caused it to miss the only time it would be able to fire its engines.
The mission ended when the Starliner capsule made an early landing at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The Atlas V rocket uses 2 stages. A main lower stage with a Russian RD-180 engine which is fuelled by kerosene and liquid oxygen and 2 SRBs (Solid Rocket Boosters) on either side of the fuel tank. For it's 'Centaur' upper stage, it uses 2 American RL10A-4-2 engines which use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as fuel. The Atlas V normally flies with a payload fairing (a nose cone used to protect delicate spacecrafts and satellites) but for the Starliner launch the capsule used it's own protective surfaces. NASA says that even though the Starliner had a malfunction, if a crew had been on board they would have been safe and might have been able to fix the problem and dock with the ISS. As long as nothing changes, the first crewed flight will happen in 2020.
Yeet
heyo
Amazing