BOEING STARLINER | NASA once again suspends the launch of the first manned flight of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft

To the spaceship Starliner delays and delays are accumulating due to technical problems: NASA suspended for the sixth time this Saturday what was supposed to be first manned flight artificial earth satellite developed by the company Boeing Space. The launch was aborted less than four minutes before the scheduled takeoff from Caño Cañaveral (Florida, USA) toward International Space Station (ISS) with astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams on board.

He Atlas V rocket with the ship Starliner CST-100 At its peak, it was scheduled to fly at 12:25 pm (6:25 pm in Spain), but the mission countdown stopped automatically three minutes and 50 seconds after launch. NASA explained on X (formerly Twitter) that the ground launch sequencer “found anomalies“ and therefore activated the automatic stop. Later it turned out that the breakdown affected one of the three take-off computers artifact.

“We were very close, the team is very professional, and when we are ready to start, we’ll take off“he noticed a few hours later Mark Nappi, Vice President of Boeing Space and head of the company’s commercial human flight program. “I know it’s disappointing because We were very excited but this is space. “I’ve been doing this for 37 years, and every time a rocket is on the launch pad, there’s a chance you’ll have to abort takeoff,” admitted Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial flight program manager.

Years of delays and competition with Elon Musk

First launch with astronauts on board It was scheduled for May 6 last year, but the “CFT mission” (an acronym in English for “Crew Flight Test”, a crew flight test in Spanish) was aborted two hours after takeoff due to the failure of one of the rocket’s valves. Atlas V launcher.

Still reusable ship With capacity seven people made two unmanned flights: one in 2019 when it did not reach the International Space Station as planned due to software and engineering problems, and another in 2022 when Yes, he achieved his goals.: It successfully docked with the ISS, delivered materials and equipment to NASA, and remained in the orbiting laboratory for five days.

Despite this, the project of the American aerospace giant accumulates years of delays and this Saturday there will be another setback in his space career, but also in business: if successful, he will receive the necessary certificates from NASA with the aim of working as a second provider of cargo and crew transportation to the ISS. The first to achieve this was Cosmos. Elon Muskwith its Crew Dragon spacecraft, which made its first flight with astronauts on board in 2020. In addition, both projects are not only between the eyebrows take tourists to spacebut will become part of the space agency’s commercial crew program.

New try: Wednesday or Thursday.

If they could fix the glitch using the take-off computer, NASA and Boeing could try to take off again this Sunday at 12:03 pm in the US (6:03 pm in Spain). However, they have already stated that this will not happen. News launch windows They are scheduled for Wednesday, June 5 and Thursday, June 6, although there is no confirmation on this yet.