Boeing’s long-delayed Starliner finally achieved its first crewed launch yesterday, which saw Nasa astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams undertake a 25-hour flight to the International Space Station (ISS).

The lift-off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is located on an island off the coast of Florida, was achieved without a hitch just before 11am local time on Wednesday morning.

“This crew flight test represents the beginning of a new era of space exploration as we watch astronauts Wilmore and Williams put Boeing’s Starliner through its paces on the way to the ISS,” said Ted Colbert, CEO for Boeing Defense, Space & Security. “This is a great start. We look forward to getting the astronauts safely to the space station and back home.”

The launch of Starliner means Nasa finally has a choice of having two commercial spacecraft capable of launching astronauts into low-Earth orbit alongside vehicles from Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Wilmore and Williams are also the first to...