breaking news hello everyone. thanks for joining me on. alison chemla, radha, and for fredricka whitfield, we have an exciting program for you today because within the next half an hour, we expect to witness the first ever boeing starliner spacecraft launched from cape canaveral, florida to the international space station. this is not a practice run this its launch has to american astronauts on board but officials and spectators are holding their breath a bit because this mission was already postponed a few times, veteran nasa astronauts, butch wilmore and suni williams are on board. and boeing is trying with this to compete with its rivals space x as nasa tries to collaborate with private industry partners. if successful, suni williams would become the first woman aboard any crewed test flight like this years of work has gone into this moment and it has not been without setbacks, as i ve mentioned. so let s bring in space and defense correspondent kristin fisher. she
so rare. there have only been six in us history, mercury gemini apollo, the space shuttle spacex crew, dragon bagging, and now boeing starliner. so to be one of the two astronauts selected for this mission is a huge honore. nasa only selects it s top astronauts for this hi is it is so risky, it is so dangerous, no humans have ever been inside of this spacecraft as it goes all the way up into outer space for this mission, they selected the commander, butch wilmore he s a navy test pilot, been a nasa astronauts since 2000, logged 178 days space force spacewalks from tennessee, just an all-around really nice guy. he s also a pastor at his local church. and then the pilot but is sunny williams. she s also a navy test pilot selected as an astronaut and 98 she was she is she is about to become in just a few minutes now the first one woman on a crude crewed test flight,