Launching Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule on a pilotless test flight to the International Space Station failed on Tuesday due to a problem with a valve in the capsule’s propellant system. The mission manager is opening up the option to make another attempt on Wednesday at 12:57 a.m. ET, weather permitting, if issues can be resolved in time.
The launch aboard the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was originally planned for last Friday, but NASA ordered the temporary delay of Russian space station engineers. problem solved with the newly arrived laboratory module. Over the weekend, the Starliner launch was rearranged for Tuesday.
Forecasters monitoring Florida’s typically stormy summer afternoon weather forecast a 60% chance of acceptable conditions then lowering the odds to 50-50. The team continued to press forward with refueling, but at around 10:30 a.m., Boeing announced the launch had been cancelled, men-tweet“We can confirm that today’s launch of #Starliner Orbital Flight Test-2 has been cancelled. More details soon.”
The Starliner flight marks a major milestone for Boeing and NASA as the agency transitions from boarding a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to fielding commercial crewed ships built by Boeing and SpaceX.
SpaceX, under a $2.6 billion NASA contract, launched the Crew Dragon spacecraft on a successful pilotless test flight in 2019 and a test flight last year. Since then, the California rocket maker has launched two operational flights to the space station carrying two long-range crew members to the outpost.
Boeing, under a $4.2 billion contract, launched its Starliner on a pilotless test flight December 20, 2019, but plans to dock with the space station. slipping by software problems. Company managers are counting on a second test flight this week to finally pave the way for the piloted mission.
Depending on the lessons learned, Boeing and NASA could be ready to launch three astronauts aboard different Starliner capsules by the end of this year or early next year.
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