After an 'emotional rollercoaster,' NASA astronauts are ready to fly on Boeing Starliner

A woman astronaut in a flight suit posing in the doorway of a spacecraft simulator. the open door is at right.

When Suni Williams was assigned to fly on board Boeing Starliner flight in 2018, no one anticipated it would be a six-year wait for launch.

The veteran NASA astronaut and former U.S. Navy test pilot spoke March 22 about the "emotional rollercoaster" the Starliner team went through in the years since, through two uncrewed test flights, the pandemic and a host of other technical issues that had to be addressed before safely launching astronauts.