Business

WESTERN CHAINS used to dominate casual dining and drinking in China. The arrival of a Kentucky Fried Chicken in a Chinese city was once regarded as a developmental milestone. Today China is home to 10,000 KFCs (whose owner, Yum China, was spun off from its American parent in 2016), more than twice the number in America. Starbucks has 7,000 coffee shops and McDonald’s boasts 6,000 burger joints. The foreigners’ cash and cachet made it hard for locals to compete.Now the tables are turning. Starbucks’s Chinese sales fell by 8% in the first quarter, year on year, and Yum China reported a drop of 3%. Yet even as they lose their appetite for foreign chains, Chinese consumers cannot get enough of domestic ones. Tastien, which fills hamburgers with local delicacies such as Peking duck or mapo tofu rather than beef, has opened 1,600 new shops in the past six months, bringing its total to 7,000. Wallace, another burger-flipper, now has more than 20,000. Cotti, a two-year-old coffee-shop chain, plans to have that many by the end of 2025, up from 6,000 last October. An older caffeine-pedlar, Luckin, opened 8,000 in 2023, doubling its network. Mixue hawks its bubble tea through 36,000 outlets. More

THE MIDDLE EAST is something of a tech desert. One company trying to change this is G42, founded six years ago in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). More recently the state-backed firm has turned into the nerve centre of Emirati ambitions to become an AI powerhouse—and to spread the country’s broader influence in its neighbourhood and beyond. But rather than creating its own large language models (LLMs) of the sort that underpin AIs like ChatGPT, G42 wants to achieve this goal by developing the infrastructure of the AI economy and the real-world applications of the technology in industries such as health care and energy.Even by AI’s frenetic standards G42 has had a busy couple of years. It has struck deals with OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, and with Cerebras, a chipmaking upstart, to construct a new supercomputer. It is erecting data centres to accommodate vast cloud-computing workloads. It has teamed up with AstraZeneca, a European drugmaker (to manufacture “innovative” medicines in the UAE), and with the Mercedes Formula One racing team (for reasons that are vaguer still). Through investment vehicles co-founded with Mubadala and ADQ, two Emirati sovereign-wealth funds, it is also placing multibillion-dollar bets on startups around the world. And in April it found itself on the receiving end of a $1.5bn investment from Microsoft, the $3trn software behemoth whose own partnership with OpenAI has put it at the sharp end of the AI revolution. More

Walmart’s hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, is growing rapidly — with many amenities, and higher prices, that people might expect in a bigger city.
The town has more cranes per capita than any other U.S. city, according to Cushman & Wakefield/Sage Partners, and prices are rising for longtime residents as it expands.
The biggest construction project is Walmart’s new headquarters, which will sprawl across roughly 350 acres with offices, a hotel, food hall, and walking and cycling trails.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — When Gil Curren’s family moved into a run-down farmhouse in Walmart’s hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, in 1971, the now-retail giant wasn’t yet a decade old. Sometimes, the nearby creek would flood, and cows would break loose onto the dirt road in front of his home.
Now, when the 88-year-old retiree looks outside of his window, he sees new homes instead of cattle. Cyclists, including mountain bikers, whiz by. And when he drives into town, he sees buildings he doesn’t recognize.

“In the last 10, 15 years, it’s just exploded,” he said. “Every time I go to town now, there’s new construction.”

Sue and Gil Curren have seen Bentonville change since moving there from Kansas City in 1971.
Melissa Repko | CNBC

As Walmart tries to hold off Amazon and keep its title of the nation’s largest retailer, the discounter is racing to turn itself into a tech-powered company. Walmart is growing not only by offering groceries and household staples, but also by selling ads and expanding its third-party marketplace.
As the company evolves, its hometown is also changing — and Bentonville now boasts many of the amenities that visitors might expect to see in startup hubs like Austin, Texas, or major cities like New York.
Craft cocktails, hipster coffee shops and chef-driven restaurants have popped up around the city. And a $255-per-month members-only social club has become so popular it has a waiting list.
Walmart has fueled the growth of its hometown, as it attracts talent to the region and tries to turn the area into a more desirable location for workers who could get competing job offers in major U.S. cities or Silicon Valley. At the same time, Bentonville’s evolution has pushed up the cost of housing and more, contributing to the same concerns about affordability and displacement of residents that have plagued other fast-growing cities.

It’s not just Walmart bringing workers to Bentonville. Fortune 500 companies J.B. Hunt and Tyson Foods are also based in northwest Arkansas. And nearly every major Walmart vendor with products sold at the retailer’s thousands of stores, drawn by the benefit of having employees on the ground at any moment, has an office in the area. Those companies include PepsiCo, Hershey, Duracell and Mattel.

More million-dollar homes

The population of Bentonville shot up from 36,000 in 2010 to 58,000 in 2022, and it’s on track to grow to 200,000 people by 2050, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The town has more cranes per capita than any other U.S. city, according to Cushman & Wakefield/Sage Partners. More restaurants, new hotels and a medical school are all underway.

Walmart is building a roughly 350-acre new headquarters in Bentonville. It will include a walking and cycling trail, a food hall and a hotel.
Shawn Baldwin | CNBC

But the biggest construction project is Walmart’s new headquarters, which will sprawl across roughly 350 acres. The campus will include biking and walking trails, a food hall, and a range of other amenities. Its new fitness center and daycare opened this spring, and other parts of the campus will open in phases, starting next year.
Even the Walmart Museum is under construction. The museum, located in the first 5 & 10 store that Walmart founder Sam Walton put his name on, is getting renovated to look more modern and include tech-enabled displays like a life-sized hologram of Walton that answers visitors’ questions.
Walton’s family continues to shape the town as it grows. His grandsons, Steuart and Tom Walton, have helped to bring mountain bike trails to the area and turn Bentonville into a destination for the sport. They also are behind a real estate firm and a hospitality group that’s opened high-end restaurants and built apartment complexes. Sam Walton’s daughter, Alice Walton, founded Crystal Bridges, an American art museum that’s free to visitors. She’s now opening a medical school in Bentonville that plans to enroll its first class of future doctors next year.

Bentonville has attracted tourists and new residents with its many miles of mountain biking trails and its American art museum, Crystal Bridges, which is free to visitors.
Melissa Repko | CNBC

Bentonville’s boom has started to change the identity of America’s best-known discounter — and has made Walmart’s backyard a pricier place to live. As newcomers move from other states and cities, the demand for million-dollar homes has shot up, and affordable housing has become harder to find.
Realtor Kristen Boozman, who works for Sotheby’s, helps clients search for homes in the Bentonville area, including many buyers who are relocating from another city.
“Ten years ago, we had 14 homes that sold for over a million dollars,” she said. “Last year, 2023, we had 244.”
Bentonville’s population is younger, wealthier and more highly educated than the rest of the country, according to Census Bureau data. The city’s median age is 32, seven years younger than the rest of the U.S. About 52% of its population holds a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 36% nationally.
Its income levels are much higher, too. Bentonville’s median household income is approximately $99,000 annually. That compares with the $55,432 median household income in Arkansas and $74,755 nationally.
Household incomes have also risen locally. The median household income climbed about 25% from 2017 to 2022, the most recent data available, outpacing gains across the U.S.
For Walmart employees, most of whom work in the company’s stores and warehouses across the U.S., Bentonville would be hard to afford. The median Walmart employee makes an annual salary of $27,642, according to Walmart’s most recent proxy statement.

Home values have shot up in the Bentonville area. In some of the city’s neighborhoods, residents now pay $1 million or more for a house.
Shawn Baldwin | CNBC

Managing a boomtown

Brandom Gengelbach, CEO of the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce, said the region wants to learn from other boomtowns like Austin and Boise, Idaho, that have run into growth-related problems, like traffic and pricing out longtime residents. He previously worked for a chamber in another fast-growing region, Dallas-Fort Worth.
“There’s always going to be unintended consequences of growth,” he said. But he added, “what this has been able to bring to people’s property values, what it brings in terms of amenities, the education system we have here. It’s far beyond any of the negatives.”
The small town, which Sam Walton put on the map, will soon get another wave of newcomers: Walmart announced last month that it would be transferring corporate employees from Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto to Bentonville or other corporate hubs on the coasts.
Boosted by Walmart, its vendors and other companies in the area, the population of northwest Arkansas grows by an estimated 36 people each day, according to the Northwest Arkansas Council, which calculated net additions based on births, deaths and relocations. The region, which spans three counties, is expected to grow from its current population of roughly 576,000 people to 1 million people by 2050.
Walmart recently did a survey of new employees who relocated to northwest Arkansas. Walmart’s chief people officer, Donna Morris, said the top selling point of moving to the region was the job. But, she added new employees tend to warm up to Bentonville. The survey found sentiment about the area increases after job candidates visit, and grows more after they move there.
When candidates are considering a move, many come in person to look for homes, tour schools or meet with local leaders, Morris said. The company also sends information about the area and often connects people to other employees who recently moved, she said.

Drawing talent

Tracy Robinson, 36, lived in New York City, Miami and Washington, D.C. before moving to Arkansas for a job at Walmart. But she said she’s enjoyed the slower pace and big city amenities of Bentonville.
Melissa Repko | CNBC

Tracy Robinson never imagined she’d live in Arkansas. The 36-year-old lived in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Miami before moving to Bentonville for a job at Walmart. She leads a team that coordinates with manufacturers that make baby products for Walmart’s private-label brands.
Robinson had never set foot in Bentonville before she moved there about two years ago. She said she expected to stay for a year, so she could add Walmart to her resume.
But once she arrived, she enjoyed the town’s slower pace and its big-city amenities. Her dog, Stanley, also settled in quickly — sporting a bow tie as he chased squirrels and went on long walks in the sculpture garden outside of Crystal Bridges.
Robinson was also surprised to find a restaurant and bar scene with dishes — and prices — similar to Miami.

One of Bentonville’s upscale restaurants is Conifer. The gluten-free restaurant is shaped by seasonal ingredients and includes dishes that cost as much as $60.
Melissa Repko | CNBC

One of those restaurants is led by chef Matthew Cooper. He helped jump-start Bentonville’s upscale food scene as the executive chef of The Preacher’s Son, a restaurant off of Bentonville’s downtown square in a converted former church. The restaurant, which has a speakeasy in its basement, is owned by Ropeswing Hospitality Group, founded by Sam Walton’s grandsons, Tom and Steuart.
Now, Cooper has a restaurant of his own, Conifer, which serves up dishes like buffalo mushrooms with Gorgonzola mousse and lamb meatballs with wild rice, carrot, pistachio pesto and goat cheese. On the recent seasonal menu, entrees cost as much as $60.
But Cooper said he’s gotten little pushback to the prices from business travelers and local residents.
“They were from places where those prices were already prevalent,” he said. “So it really hasn’t been that much of a fight.”

The population of Bentonville has shot up from 36,000 in 2010 to 58,000 in 2022, and it’s on track to grow to 200,000 people by 2050, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Shawn Baldwin | CNBC

Affordability issues

For Conifer’s restaurant workers, though, living in town has become a challenge as rent and real estate costs climb. Cooper said he strives to offer competitive wages and benefits, but most employees don’t live in Bentonville. Many commute from cheaper parts of the region, and some have roommates.
High housing costs inspired a unique project that will soon rise in Bentonville: A roughly $35 million development with a mix of 120 apartments and 40 single-family homes, with many earmarked for teachers and other employees of the Bentonville Schools.
The project is expected to be completed in late 2025. It is funded with a mix of donations and federal and state money, and overseen by the Excellerate Foundation, a local nonprofit.
The project was inspired by the public school district’s struggles to hire and retain teachers because of the area’s higher rents and home prices. Some teachers accepted jobs, only to turn them down after looking for a place to live.
“It’s just not affordable is the straight-forward bottom line — especially when you’re talking about people that are in a serving industry, be it community service, staff of the cities or people that are firefighters, police officers, teachers,” Excellerate Foundation CEO Jeff Webster said.
Teachers and other school district employees who move into the development will pay $1,500 per month for their homes. When they depart, they will get a balance based on their monthly payments and portion of the home’s equity appreciation, which they can put toward the purchase of a permanent home.
A Walmart spokeswoman said the Walton Family Foundation funds and advocates for affordable housing projects in the Bentonville area. Excellerate and the Walton Family Foundation have also worked together in the past, including on a job training program. The Walton Family Foundation is not involved in the Bentonville housing project for teachers.

Bentonville
Shawn Baldwin | CNBC

As the city prepares for more growth, Webster led a task force for the Bentonville City Council that researched affordable housing. He interviewed people from other booming cities. By planning ahead, Webster said, Bentonville wants to incentivize developers to build housing with a mix of price points and avoid urban sprawl.
Curren, who has lived in Bentonville since 1971, said Bentonville has already begun to resemble cities like Austin or Houston. Traffic is noticeably heavier now. He misses the days when he knew nearly everyone in town.
“We can go to the Walmart store and not meet one person that we know in there,” he said.
But Curren likes to see families riding around town on bicycles, after the proliferation of hundreds of miles of cycling paths in northwest Arkansas. He and his wife, Sue, recently took a tour of downtown Bentonville to learn more about the new buildings, restaurants and shops.
“We still have a really great lifestyle here,” Curren said. “And I would recommend that to anyone. But don’t tell them: I don’t want anyone else moving here.”
— CNBC’s Jodi Gralnick and Shawn Baldwin contributed to this report. More

Lululemon beat Wall Street’s earnings and revenue estimates, but issued weak second-quarter guidance as it contends with a slowdown in the Americas, its largest market.
Last quarter, the company fumbled when it did not have the right sizes or colors in U.S. stores, which hit sales.
CEO Calvin McDonald touted Lululemon’s international growth and signaled that it has more work to do in the Americas.

A staff member holds a thermometer to measure the temperature of a customer at an entrance to a Lululemon store, following the Covid-19 outbreak, in Shanghai, China, on June 21, 2022.
Aly Song | Reuters

Lululemon’s growth in the Americas, its largest market, appears to be stalling after the retailer on Wednesday reported flat comparable sales in the region and weak guidance for the current quarter. 
The athletic apparel retailer handily beat Wall Street’s earnings estimates, but only narrowly topped revenue expectations. Lululemon’s full fiscal-year guidance suggests the company is betting conditions will improve in the back half of the year. 

Here is how Lululemon did in its first fiscal quarter compared to what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $2.54 vs. $2.38 expected
Revenue: $2.21 billion vs. $2.19 billion expected

Despite the tepid growth, Lululemon’s stock jumped 10% in extended trading Wednesday. The company also announced it would add $1 billion to its stock buyback program.
The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended April 28 was $321 million, or $2.54 per share, compared to $290 million, or $2.28 per share, a year earlier.  
Sales rose to $2.21 billion, up about 10% from $2 billion a year earlier.
In a news release, CEO Calvin McDonald touted the “strong momentum” the company is seeing in its international markets and hinted that it needs to do more work in the Americas to grow in the region again.

“We are pleased by the progress we are making to optimize our U.S. product assortment,” said McDonald. “Looking ahead, we continue to have a significant runway for growth and are confident in our team’s ability to powerfully deliver.” 
Last quarter, McDonald said the company was seeing consumer dynamics change in the Americas, but also noted Lululemon fumbled by not having the right sizes and colors in its stores, which hit sales. During a call with analysts on Wednesday, McDonald said those issues continued during the fiscal first quarter.
He said Lululemon’s color assortment was too narrow in leggings, and the company was once again out of stock of the sizes its customers wanted. McDonald added the company did not buy enough of the items that were landing with consumers, leading to products being out of stock. He said he expects the company to be in a better inventory position in the second half of the year.
Lululemon is still growing in the Americas, but at a much slower pace than last year. During the first quarter of this year, sales in the Americas increased 3%, versus a 17% jump in the year-ago period. Comparable sales were flat from last year.
Across the business, Lululemon’s comparable sales grew 6%, below the 7% uptick that analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount. 
As growth in the Americas slows, Lululemon issued weak guidance for the current quarter. It expects revenue to be between $2.40 billion and $2.42 billion, just below estimates of $2.45 billion, according to LSEG. It guided earnings per share to be between $2.92 and $2.97, compared to estimates of $3.02, according to LSEG. 
The company appears to be expecting conditions to improve in the second half of the year. For the full year, Lululemon expects earnings per share to be between $14.27 and $14.47, ahead of the $14.11 that analysts had expected. It is expecting revenue to be between $10.7 billion and $10.8 billion, which is in line with expectations, according to LSEG. 
Lululemon, still widely considered to be a best-in-class retailer and a market leader, has hit a bit of a rough patch as of late. Its stock is down 40% year to date as of Wednesday’s close, as investors become concerned about its growth prospects. 
It recently announced that its longtime Chief Product Officer Sun Choe would be resigning, which caused shares to fall. Lululemon could also soon find itself on the other side of trends. Denim is having a major moment with consumers, and investors have been concerned that shoppers could be swapping athleisure for jeans, which could hit Lululemon’s topline. 
Read the full earnings release here.

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Departing Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will face the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on June 18.
Calhoun will face questions about whistleblower safety allegations and quality controls of Boeing aircraft.
The hearing comes after a company engineer alleged the assembly of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners put excessive stress on the planes and reduce their lifespans, allegations Boeing called inaccurate.

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun speaks briefly with reporters as he arrives for a meeting at the office of Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 24, 2024.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will testify before a Senate panel on June 18 to answer lawmaker questions about whistleblower allegations and quality control at the aircraft maker as it navigates a safety crisis.
“I look forward to Mr. Calhoun’s testimony, which is a necessary step in meaningfully addressing Boeing’s failures, regaining public trust, and restoring the company’s central role in the American economy and national defense,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

“Years of putting profits ahead of safety, stock price ahead of quality, and production speed ahead of responsibility has brought Boeing to this moment of reckoning, and its hollow promises can no longer stand,” he said.
The hearing comes after a company engineer alleged the assembly of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners put excessive stress on the planes and reduce their lifespans, allegations Boeing called inaccurate. The  Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
“We welcome the opportunity to appear before the Subcommittee to share the actions we have taken, and will continue to take, to strengthen safety and quality and ensure that commercial air travel remains the safest form of transportation,” Boeing said in a statement. “We are committed to fostering a culture of accountability and transparency while upholding the highest standards of safety and quality.”
Boeing has been trying to regain its footing in the wake of two deadly crashes of its bestselling 737 Max in 2018 and 2019. But a door plug that blew out of a nearly new 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight in January put fresh scrutiny on the manufacturer from lawmakers and the FAA.
Calhoun in March said he would step down by year’s end, part of a broad executive shake-up at the plane maker.

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Dollar Tree is exploring a sale of its grocery-focused brand Family Dollar, after shuttering more than 500 stores in the past quarter
The discounter reported first-quarter earnings that met expectations.
Dollar stores are having a hard time with rising costs and a weary low-end consumer.

An exterior view of a Dollar Tree store in Bloomsburg Pennsylvania. 
Paul Weaver | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Dollar Tree announced Wednesday it is considering a sale of its more grocery-focused Family Dollar brand.
The company had recently shared plans to close almost 1,000 Family Dollar stores in an attempt to revamp the struggling business. The discounter closed more than 500 locations during its fiscal first quarter, it said Wednesday.

“We are already beginning to see progress in this targeted strategy in the streamlined Family Dollar banner,” the company said in a press release. “The unique needs of each banner at this time – transformation at Family Dollar and growth acceleration at Dollar Tree – lead us to the decision to conduct a thorough review of strategic alternatives for the Family Dollar business.”
Dollar Tree bought Family Dollar in 2015 for almost $9 billion. The business has been struggling ever since to compete against its major rival, Dollar General.
The company has not set a deadline or definitive timetable for the sale review process, and is working with JPMorgan and Davis Polk & Wardwell advisors in its review.
Shares of Dollar Tree fell about 5% Wednesday.
The update came alongside Dollar Tree’s fiscal first-quarter earnings report, in which Family Dollar lagged.

Same-store sales for the company’s Dollar Tree brand rose 1.7% while Family Dollar sales climbed only 0.1%. Enterprise sales rose 1%.
Revenue rose to $7.63 billion, up about 4% from $7.32 billion a year earlier.
The company said it expects sales for the second quarter will range from $7.3 billion to $7.6 billion, with sales growth for the Dollar Tree banner of between 2% and 4% and sales for the Family Dollar segment approximately flat.
Here’s how the discounter did in its fiscal first quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $1.43 cents vs. $1.42 expected
Revenue: $7.63 billion vs. $7.63 billion expected

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended May 4 was $300.1 million, or $1.38 cents per share, compared with $299 million, or $1.35 per share, a year earlier. Adjusting for one-time items, including the cost of store closures, the company reported earnings of $1.43 per share.
The company also mentioned that it incurred losses totaling $117 million as of early May, after a tornado destroyed the company’s distribution center in Marietta, Oklahoma, on April 28. The facility sustained significant damage, and the inventory in the facility as well as the facility itself are not salvageable, Dollar Tree said in the report.
The company said it expects the incurred losses to be offset by insurance recoveries.
The dollar store segment is going through tough times as lower-end consumers pull back in the face of higher costs. Although a shift to cost-cutting efforts sounds like it would have benefited dollar stores, the discounters are increasingly losing market share to value retailers like Walmart and e-commerce retailers like Temu.
Dollar Tree fell short of expectations for holiday-quarter sales in its fourth-quarter earnings report, meanwhile its main competitor Dollar General surpassed estimates.
Dollar Tree has been in the midst of a broader turnaround effort since current CEO and former Dollar General CEO Richard Dreiling took the helm in early 2023.
Shares of the company have pulled back roughly 15% in 2024.

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American Airlines offered flight attendants a 17% immediate pay hike as contract talks drag on with no deal.
“There’s still a good deal of work to be done” despite the wage increase offer, CEO Robert Isom said.
American faces a flight attendant strike if the two sides don’t reach a deal with federal mediators.

American Airlines flight attendants demonstrate outside the White House in Washington, May 9, 2024.
Drew Angerer | AFP | Getty Images

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom offered flight attendants immediate 17% wage increases on Wednesday as contract talks continue without a deal, bringing the prospect of a strike closer.
The airline and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants have struggled to reach a new contract agreement, differing on major issues, such as pay. Flight attendants haven’t received contract raises since before the pandemic.

“We have made progress in a number of key areas, but there is still a good deal of work to be done,” Isom said in a video message to flight attendants.
The union said the two sides are scheduled to meet with federal mediators next week for a “last-ditch” effort to get a deal done, adding that flight attendants were told to prepare for a strike.
Strikes are extremely rare among airline employees. The last took place in 2010 among Spirit Airlines pilots. If the two parties can’t reach a deal, a release by federal mediators would be triggered, a process that would take several weeks.
“So, to get you more money now, we presented APFA with a proposal that offers immediate wage increases of 17% and a new formula that would increase your profit sharing,” Isom said Wednesday. “This means we’ve offered increased pay for all flight attendants and are not asking your union for anything in return. This is unusual, but these are unusual times.”
APFA’s board will discuss the proposal later on Wednesday, according to Julie Hedrick, the union’s national president. She added that the airline’s focus should be on preparing a longer-term deal with the flight attendants.

“This is not that,” she said.
Also on Wednesday, the union said it opened a “strike command center” with dedicated phone lines and other resources to answer cabin crew questions.
U.S. airline pilots largely locked in new labor deals last year, while flight attendants at American, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines are still negotiating.
Last month, a bipartisan group of more than 160 House representatives wrote to the National Mediation Board, urging it to help complete deals with airlines and flight attendants.

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Boeing launched its first Starliner flight with astronauts on Wednesday.
The launch took off at 10:52 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Starliner’s crew debut has been delayed by years, while SpaceX’s competing Dragon capsule has flown astronauts for NASA regularly since 2020.

Boeing launched its first Starliner flight with astronauts on Wednesday, beginning a crucial final flight test of the long-delayed spacecraft.
The launch took off at 10:52 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with two NASA astronauts aboard. Starliner is carried by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and is bound for the International Space Station.

About 15 minutes after launch, the rocket released the Starliner capsule in orbit as planned, with the flight going as expected, according to mission control.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying two astronauts aboard Boeing’s Starliner-1 Crew Flight Test is launched on a mission to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5, 2024.
Steve Nesius | Reuters

NASA’s broadcast of the launch also noted that although Starliner has cameras onboard to show inside and outside the cabin, Boeing won’t be able to relay video back down to the ground until the spacecraft reaches the ISS.
Starliner will fly in space for about 25 hours before a planned docking with the ISS at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday. The astronauts will then spend about a week on the ISS, focused on testing Starliner, before returning to Earth.

Boeing’s crew flight test aims to certify the Starliner system as capable of carrying NASA astronauts to and from the ISS.
Wednesday’s liftoff comes after a series of attempts to launch the mission. On Saturday, a launch attempt was called off in the final minutes of the countdown due to a problem with one of the computers that provides ground support to the rocket. In early May, another attempt was called off due to an issue detected with the rocket itself.

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United Launch Alliance — or ULA, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin — replaced the rocket’s problematic valve after the May attempt and replaced a faulty part in the ground infrastructure computer after Saturday’s attempt.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft sits at the Space Launch Complex 41 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 3, 2024.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo | AFP | Getty Images

Between the two previous launch attempts, NASA and Boeing found a “small” helium leak in Starliner, causing the agency and company to perform another series of assessments.
After analysis, NASA and Boeing said the source of the leak was in the spacecraft’s helium propulsion system. But officials said after an investigation that the leak was “stable” and “not a safety of flight issue.”

SpaceX competition

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying two astronauts aboard Boeing’s Starliner-1 Crew Flight Test is launched on a mission to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5, 2024.
Joe Skipper | Reuters

The astronauts

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, right, and Suni Williams wait for liftoff inside the Boeing Starliner capsule at Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5, 2024.
NASA via AP

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are flying on Starliner, with the former serving as the spacecraft’s commander and the latter as its pilot.
Wilmore joined NASA in 2000 and has flown to space twice previously on the Space Shuttle and Russia’s Soyuz. Before NASA, Wilmore was a U.S. Navy pilot.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams.
Credit: Kim Shiflett | NASA

Williams was selected by NASA in 1998 and has also flown to space twice before, on the Space Shuttle and then the Soyuz. Williams was also a Navy pilot, like Wilmore, before joining the space agency.

The rocket and capsule

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is seen on the launch pad of Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on May 30, 2024.
Isaac Watson | NASA

Starliner launches on ULA’s Atlas V. The rocket debuted in 2002, and the Starliner crew flight test represents its 100th launch.
The capsule itself is built to carry as many as four NASA astronauts per flight and more than 200 pounds of research and cargo. The spacecraft lands using a parachute and airbag system. Starliner is reusable, with each capsule designed to fly as many as 10 missions.

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