NASA's Boeing Starliner Launches Historic Astronaut Mission After Delays

The third time was the charm for Boeing's long-delayed Starliner crewed mission ... which finally blasted off into orbit for its first piloted test flight to the International Space Station.

The United Launch Alliance's Atlas V powered up into the skies Wednesday from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station -- with veteran U.S. astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and copilot Sunita "Suni" Williams on board ... streaming live on NASA's website.

Butch and Suni's cosmic commute will see them spend just over 24 hours traveling to the space station. After docking Thursday, they'll settle into their new home for the next 8 days ... joining the 7 astronauts and cosmonauts already on board the orbiting lab.

This crew flight test mission follows 2 failed launch attempts -- one on May 6 due an issue with a valve on the spacecraft ... and another on June 1 over technical issues with the computers that are responsible for a successful takeoff.

Ahead of the third attempt, Suni -- the first woman to be on a test flight of an orbital spacecraft -- insisted she wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Despite weeks of hiccups and years of delays due to malfunctions ... she reassured everyone the spacecraft was solid.

If all goes according to plan ... Suni and Butch will wrap up their journey on June 14 by descending back to Earth aboard the Starliner capsule and then parachuting down to White Sands, New Mexico.

The mission is Boeing's big play in the space race ... aiming to develop a spacecraft that can go head-to-head with SpaceX's mighty Crew Dragon capsule. It's all part of America's push to expand its options for shuttling astronauts to the space station under NASA's Commercial Crew Program.