Cape Canaveral, Florida – Boeing’s highly anticipated Starliner spacecraft has faced a delay in its first crewed launch for at least four more days. The spacecraft, scheduled for its inaugural flight, had to postpone the mission due to a technical issue involving an oxygen relief valve on the Atlas V rocket’s Centaur Stage.
The Atlas V rocket, produced by United Launch Alliance and known for its 100% success rate in missions since 2002, faced its first manned mission challenge with this launch. The decision to delay the launch was communicated by NASA during a callout broadcast on NASA Television about two hours before the scheduled liftoff.
Despite the setback, the new target launch date for the Starliner is set for Friday, according to NASA. The spacecraft is set to carry its first astronaut crew, including Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams, both former U.S. Navy test pilots and experienced International Space Station astronauts, to the ISS for a week-long mission.
Wilmore and Williams will make history as the first crew to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station since Apollo 7 in 1968. They will also be the first humans to travel to space aboard an Atlas rocket since Gordon Cooper’s mission on Mercury-Atlas 9 in 1963.
NASA has high hopes for Starliner to be fully operational for future missions next year, aligning with its goal of launching two different spacecraft from U.S. soil. Meanwhile, SpaceX, the agency’s other commercial crew contractor, has been successfully sending missions to the ISS since 2020.
Updates on the situation will be provided as soon as new information is released by NASA, Boeing, or ULA regarding the Starliner launch. The public eagerly awaits the successful liftoff of this groundbreaking mission in the near future.