Boeing's Starliner spacecraft: A guide

Boeing's Starliner is one of two US spacecraft tasked by Nasa with transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The vehicle is expected to help usher in a new era of private "taxi services" operating just above the Earth.

When the space shuttle was retired in 2011, Nasa became reliant on Russia for transporting its astronauts to the ISS.

In the meantime, Nasa worked on handing this job over to US companies. The space agency chose Boeing and SpaceX to develop new vehicles with the intention of purchasing seats on them for its crew once they started flying. slot

Starliner has an Apollo-like design with conical sides - a shape that's stable when the capsule is plummeting at high speed through the Earth's atmosphere. But it has more autonomy than either the Apollo spacecraft or the shuttle. Boeing's vehicle travels to the ISS and docks with little to no intervention from astronauts.

It's also designed to be safer. Unlike the space shuttle, Starliner has an escape system that can propel the crew away from its rocket if an emergency occurs during launch.