The long-awaited launch of the first manned Boeing ‘Starliner’ rocket has been postponed again due to technical problems. A new date for the test flight was not announced.
The flight was aborted on Monday evening (local time) less than two hours before the countdown because a problem with a valve in the rocket’s second stage could not be fixed in time, NASA said in its livestream.
The CST-200 Starliner would launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on an Atlas V rocket from the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and carry two astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). It is still unclear how long it will take to resolve the problem. A date for the next launch attempt has not yet been set.
Astronauts were expected to arrive at the ISS on Wednesday
Astronauts Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams left the Starliner capsule and returned to their crew quarters at the Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida, NASA said. They were actually supposed to arrive at the ISS on Wednesday and stay there for about a week. Before the Starliner’s arrival, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which had been docked there, was moved to another docking station at the ISS.
Boeing in crisis
Boeing is already facing intense public scrutiny and a major overhaul of quality control after a series of crises in commercial aviation. The company wanted to set a sign of success with the Starliner. To save the program, which is years behind schedule, it has so far exceeded projected costs by more than $1.5 billion. While Boeing faces difficulties, Tesla founder Elon Musk’s SpaceX has become a reliable partner for NASA for transportation to space.
Source: Krone
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