NASA and Boeing were forced to abort a launch attempt to the International Space Station on Monday after a last-minute problem with a valve on the spacecraft's rocket.
Boeing's Starliner capsule was scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:34 p.m. ET on its first crewed test flight. NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams were aboard the capsule and strapped into their seats when the launch attempt was aborted about two hours before the scheduled liftoff.
A new release date has not yet been announced.
Mission controllers declared an “abortion” on the United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, which was scheduled to send the Starliner capsule into orbit, after detecting an abnormality in the oxygen valve.
Starliner's crewed flight will be a critical final test before NASA allows Boeing to fly regularly to and from the space station. NASA and Boeing officials said safety is a top priority for the spacecraft's first flight carrying humans.
The launch cancellation is another setback for Boeing, which has already dealt with years of delays and budget overruns on its Starliner program. It lags far behind SpaceX, which has been flying manned missions to and from NASA's space station since 2020.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule and Boeing's Starliner craft were both developed as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The effort began more than a decade ago following the retirement of the agency's space shuttle fleet to assist private companies in building new spacecraft to take astronauts to low-Earth orbit. Starliner's first unmanned flight in 2019 was hampered by a software issue, forcing mission controllers to shorten tests before the spacecraft attempted to rendezvous and dock with the ISS. The second attempt was subsequently postponed several times due to fuel valve problems, and it wasn't until 2022 that Boeing successfully completed an unmanned flight to the space station.