The first-ever astronaut launch of the Boeing Starliner was called off hours before its planned lift-off overnight on Monday due to a mechanical issue with an oxygen pressure relief valve in its Atlas V rocket.
Boeing‘s first crew flight had been poised ready to transport two Nasa astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) and propel the aircraft manufacturer into the same league as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, but the launch was temporarily aborted about two hours before its planned time of departure from Nasa‘s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Addressing this latest incident in a years-long line of mission setbacks, Nasa said in a post on X: “Today’s #Starliner launch is scrubbed as teams evaluate an oxygen relief valve on the Centaur Stage on the Atlas V.
“Our astronauts have exited Starliner and will return to crew quarters.”
The cone-shaped astronaut capsule, designed by Boeing, was due to take retired US Navy captain Barry “Butch” Wilmore, 61, and former Navy aviator and test pilot Sunita Williams, 58 to the ISS some 250 miles above Earth, where it was planned to dock on Wednesday after a flight of about 26 hours.
The pair are set be the first crew to reach space from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station since Apollo 7 in 1968, and the first humans to fly to space aboard an Atlas rocket since Gordon Cooper on the Mercury-Atlas 9 in 1963.
A new launch date has yet to be announced, but lift-off will now not take place until at least later this week.
When is the Boeing Starliner launch?
The earliest possible launch date for the Boeing Starliner is now Friday 10 May, Nasa said on Tuesday, but it has not yet been officially announced when the historic first crewed launch would be re-attempted.
A statement from the agency following the delay of the launch said: “The delay allows teams to complete data analysis on a pressure regulation valve on the liquid oxygen tank of the Atlas V rocket’s Centaur upper stage and determine whether it is necessary to replace the valve.”
Back-up launch date “opportunities” were 7, 10 and 11 May, according to Nasa’s livestream coverage of the scrubbed launch.
Lift-off had been set for 10:34 pm local time on Monday 6 May, or 3:34am BST Tuesday 7 May in the UK, before the problem arose that meant it was called off.
Nasa’s statement continued: “Following the scrub, NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams exited the Starliner spacecraft and launch pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and returned to the astronaut crew quarters at Kennedy.
“ULA, as per the normal recycle process, also removed liquid oxygen and hydrogen from the Atlas V first and second stages.”
In a news conference discussing the scrubbed launch attempt, Nasa official and former astronaut Ken Bowersox said: “We still have to gather more data, we don’t have a definitive plan for you yet; that will come as soon as we can provide it.”
The astronaut capsule is being carried on top of an Atlas V rocket, provided by the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA) which completed a launch readiness review on Friday and gave a “go” to proceed toward countdown at Cape Canaveral.
However, the project has a cost overrun of $1.5 billion and has been beset by years of development setbacks prior to this latest incident.
In 2019, the first attempt by Boeing to send an uncrewed Starliner to the space station failed due to dozens of software and engineering glitches. It had originally been scheduled to happen in 2015.
It was finally successful in 2022, paving the way for this mission.
A successful take off overnight would have been a much-needed boost for the beleaguered Boeing, which has been hit by a series of incidents linked to its commercial aircraft including a mid-air blow out on an Alaska Airlines plane in January.
At a pre-flight briefing with Nasa officials on Friday, Boeing vice president Mark Nappi said the company and the space agency were “in total agreement” that the Starliner was ready to fly with crew, adding, “we can’t be more confident.”
How can I watch the launch live?
The re-scheduled launch of the CST-100 Starliner will likely again be streamed live by Nasa on NASA TV, and will likely also be available on the agency’s YouTube channel and via a livestream on X.
What is the purpose of the mission?
The capsule has been designed to carry up to seven crew members and is intended to be reusable, making up to 10 flights.
During the journey the crew will test seats, onboard life-support systems, navigation equipment and the system which moves cargo into the ISS.
If the mission eventually proves successful, astronauts Wilmore and Williams will remain at the ISS for about a week before taking the Starliner back to Earth.
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They are expected to make a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the US Desert Southwest – a first for crewed Nasa missions.
The success of this flight is key to the Starliner getting final approval to begin routine operational flights under Nasa’s commercial crew program.
It will provide the space agency with a second way to send astronauts to low-Earth orbit from US soil since Elon Musk’s SpaceX Crew Dragon began doing so in 2020.
In 2014, Nasa signed contracts with both Boeing and SpaceX to provide astronaut transport to the ISS as part of its Commercial Crew programme.
Starliner is booked to fly at least six more crewed missions to the space station for Nasa, as long as this one goes according to plan.
