Another launch attempt for the first manned mission of the Starliner space capsule failed at the last minute. Just under four minutes before the liftoff scheduled for Saturday at 12:25 p.m. local time (6:25 p.m. CEST), the launch was automatically aborted, according to live commentary from the US space agency NASA.
The reasons were initially unclear. NASA decided not to reschedule the launch, which had been planned for Sunday. The managing director of the responsible United Launch Alliance (ULA), Tory Bruno, told journalists that fuel was currently being drained from the rocket in order to find out the cause of the computer-triggered abort. The computer triggered an “automatic stop” three minutes and 50 seconds before launch. An investigation is underway.
Boeing’s Starliner was supposed to take off on a rocket from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida towards the International Space Station ISS. On Saturday, NASA canceled another launch date originally planned for Sunday. If the problem can be found and resolved, Wednesday and Thursday are other possible launch dates, NASA explained in a blog entry. Further information should be provided on Sunday.
The launch was aborted when the two astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were already on board the capsule. It took a while before they were allowed to leave the Starliner again.
At the beginning of May, a launch attempt was aborted due to problems with a pressure valve on the Atlas V launch vehicle. At that time, too, the two astronauts were already strapped into their seats. A small helium leak was later discovered on the capsule, but according to NASA, this did not need to be repaired.
According to Boeing, the helium leaked out of the Starliner’s service module, the part of the capsule that houses the control and monitoring instruments. The non-flammable and non-toxic helium gas is used in the engines of spacecraft, Boeing explained.
NASA plans to regularly use the Starliner alongside SpaceX’s Dragon capsule to transport astronauts to the space station. The Dragon capsule from multi-billionaire Elon Musk’s company has been transporting astronauts to the ISS for NASA for several years.
The Starliner program, on the other hand, has suffered a number of setbacks in recent years. During an unmanned test flight in 2019, the capsule did not reach the planned trajectory due to a software error and had to return to Earth without reaching the ISS.
In 2021, a launch had to be postponed due to blocked valves. In May 2022, the Starliner finally reached the ISS for the first time in an unmanned flight. Due to various problems, however, the first crewed flight was subsequently delayed again and again, including several times since May 7.