Boeing postpones launch of Starliner space capsule due to valve problem | Space

The cancellation of the inaugural manned space mission comes at a time when Boeing is under attack over the safety record at its aviation arm.

Boeing canceled the inaugural flight of the CST-100 Starliner space capsule after engineers detected a problem with a valve on the rocket.

The decision to cancel Monday’s launch came two hours before the scheduled liftoff and about an hour after two NASA astronauts had strapped themselves into the spacecraft.

The delay, attributed to a problem with a valve on the Atlas V rocket, was announced during a live NASA webcast.

“Forgoing tonight’s launch attempt,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said in an X post.

“As I said before, @NASA’s first priority is safety. We will go when we are ready.

It was not immediately clear how long it would take to resolve the issue, but the next available launch windows for the launch are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights.

Resisting tonight’s launch attempt #Starliner. As I said before, @NASAThe first priority is safety. We will go when we are ready.

-Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) May 7, 2024

The Starliner was supposed to transport NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station (ISS), where they would have spent a week before returning to Earth.

The Starliner’s maiden voyage to the ISS was closely watched as a sign of Boeing’s ability to rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX for NASA contracts.

NASA in 2014 awarded multibillion-dollar contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to develop space capsules for the space agency to transport astronauts and cargo into space.

The contracts marked the beginning of NASA’s shift toward public-private partnerships following the end of its space shuttle program.

SpaceX’s Dragon successfully transported astronauts to the ISS in 2020, marking the first time NASA astronauts have launched from U.S. soil in a commercially built spacecraft.

Starliner carried out its first unmanned mission to the ISS in 2022, after an unsuccessful attempt three years earlier.

The cancellation of Monday’s launch comes at a difficult time for Boeing, as the company faces multiple investigations into alleged safety failures in its aviation division.