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NASA and Boeing have launched the Starliner crew space capsule. The capsule, which launched on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas-V rocket, now carries two American astronauts to the International Space Station for a short stay and then, all being well, it will touch back down to Earth next week. The initial journey will take approximately 25 hours.

The launch ends a run of failures for Boeing, including several scrubbed launches, technical failures, delays, cost-overruns and other problems that have put Starliner years overdue and enabled SpaceX to cement its lead in the commercial space industry.

The mission is a test to prove the capsule’s capability to safely transport crews to and from the station. Right now, only SpaceX’s Crew Dragon performs that function for NASA.

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In the last month, Boeing has attempted and failed to launch the Starliner capsule twice — the first was scrubbed due to a helium leak, and most recently, on June 1, because of a computer issue.

But Boeing has struggled with its space program for the last decade; in 2014, NASA contracted the company with a $5 billion award to build a fleet of commercial space taxis — the Starliner — to ferry astronauts to the ISS and back. Engineering and budget issues have delayed fulfilling the contract, and , Boeing has spent an extra $1.5 billion to get to where it is.

SpaceX, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, is NASA’s other partner in its commercial crew program to take astronauts to and from the ISS, and SpaceX already completed several crewed missions to the ISS. Boeing is slated to complete six.

The problems compound the legacy aerospace company’s issues with its airliner business — although the two divisions operate largely independently of each other.