The launch attempt was called off roughly two hours ahead of the planned liftoff.
NASA and Boeing were forced to stand down from an attempted launch to the International Space Station on Monday because of a last-minute issue that cropped up with a valve on the spacecraft’s rocket.
Boeing’s Starliner capsule had been scheduled to lift off at 10:34 p.m. ET from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on its first crewed test flight. NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams were on board the capsule and strapped into their seats when the launch attempt was called off, roughly two hours ahead of the planned liftoff.
A new launch date has not yet been announced.
Mission controllers declared a launch “scrub” after an anomaly was detected on an oxygen valve on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket, which the Starliner capsule was to ride into orbit.
Good on NASA for scrubbing the launch to keep both the astronauts and the launch team safe. That’s how it’s supposed to work.
Turns out, if your contractor kills enough people with their slapdash products, even go fever has its limits.
As much as I’d love to pile on Boeing, the article states the launch was scrubbed due to an issue with ULA’s rocket not the Boeing capsule payload.
ULA is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed, however.
But, again, Boeing spacecraft is a very separate division than commercial aircraft.
