Dhaka, May 5 -- After years of delays and stumbles, Boeing is finally poised to launch astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA.

It's the first flight of Boeing's Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station, according to an AP report.

NASA turned to US companies for astronaut rides after the space shuttles were retired. Elon Musk's SpaceX has made nine taxi trips for NASA since 2020, while Boeing has managed only a pair of unoccupied test flights.

Boeing programme manager Mark Nappi wishes Starliner was further along. "There's no doubt about that, but we're here now."

The company's long-awaited astronaut dem...