NASA's two test pilots had just docked into Boeing's Starliner capsule when the countdown stopped, just two hours before the scheduled liftoff. Dillon Rice, a United Launch Alliance engineer, reported that the problem was related to the oxygen relief valve in the upper stage of the company's Atlas rocket.
It is not yet clear when the team will try again to launch test pilots to the International Space Station for a week-long stay. This is the latest delay to the Boeing crew's maiden flight, which has been on hold for years due to problems with the capsule.
“In such a case, if we see that the data signature is not something we have seen before, we are not willing to take any risks regarding our most valuable payload,” Mr. Hans said. rice.
The first unmanned test flight of the Starliner vehicle, in 2019, failed to reach the space station and Boeing was forced to repeat the flight. Then the company ran into problems with flammable parachutes and tapes.
Within minutes, Boeing's new spacecraft returned to the launch pad to pick up Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams from their pad at Cape Canaveral Space Station.
NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to ferry astronauts to and from the space station after the space shuttle program ended, paying the private companies billions of dollars. SpaceX has been active in the orbital taxi sector since 2020.
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