Who will be first to fly Boeing's Starliner spaceship next month?

Boeing is set to launch its Starliner capsule into space next month and it will be piloted by two skilled astronauts from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), NBC reported.

Nasa astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams, will be the first to launch into space aboard Boeing's spaceship's first crewed test flight to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 6.

They arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, and will remain there until the launch.

"This is where the rubber meets the road, where we are going to leave this planet, and that is pretty darn cool," Williams said in a post-arrival news briefing.

Both veteran astronauts and former test pilots in the US Navy were selected by Nasa in 2022.

Wilmore, a Tennessee native and the mission’s commander, has completed two previous spaceflights, logging 178 days in space. 

He piloted the space shuttle Atlantis to the space station in 2009, and also launched to the orbiting outpost aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2014 as a member of the Expedition 41 crew.

Williams, who is from Massachusetts, is the mission’s pilot who has previously completed two stints aboard the ISS, totaling 322 days in space.

She first flew to the ISS on the space shuttle Discovery and remained there for about six months. 

In 2012, Williams returned to space in a Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft, and stayed for roughly four months.

The astronauts will now spend the next week working on last-minute preparation and training exercises, according to Nasa.

If the crew successfully reaches the ISS, they will spend about a week there before returning to Earth.