Sunita -piloted Starliner now targets Friday launch after initial delay

By Loren Grush

The historic first crewed mission of Boeing Co.’s Starliner space capsule will now target launch as early as Friday, following a technical issue that prevented the initial flight on Monday.
 

The United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin Corp. joint venture that makes the Atlas V rocket carrying the capsule, halted the countdown after identifying unexpected behavior with a valve on the upper portion of the vehicle, officials disclosed Monday on a live webcast. 

ULA is still sifting through data to determine if the valve needs to be replaced, a move that could lead to further delays.

Boeing is set to launch Starliner for the first time with a human crew — NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore — using a long delayed space capsule that’s been plagued by years of costly technical problems. 

The mission, key to proving that Boeing can transport humans safely to space, aims to travel to the International Space Station and back. 

The spaceflight has taken on greater significance as Boeing navigates a leadership shake-up spawned by a safety crisis with its 737 Max 9 jet business. A successful space mission would show Boeing can overcome engineering and quality challenges.

Boeing and Elon Musk’s SpaceX were each first awarded contracts by NASA in 2014 to create private vehicles to take astronauts to the ISS. SpaceX has been regularly ferrying passengers on its Crew Dragon since 2020. 

“Although Boeing got $4.2 billion to develop an astronaut capsule and SpaceX only got $2.6 billion, SpaceX finished 4 years sooner,” Musk wrote on his X social media platform on Monday. 

After Boeing’s first uncrewed mission in 2019 failed to reach the ISS as planned due to a software glitch, a second attempt was delayed after a series of corroded valves wouldn’t open properly. It took until 2022 for an uncrewed Starliner to first reach the space station.

Boeing has reported around $1.5 billion in extra costs to cover Starliner delays and technical problems, and NASA called on the company to overhaul its design processes, testing and communications throughout development. But now the space agency’s safety watchdogs have determined that the program appears to be on track. 

ULA Launch Director Tom Heter III has made the decision to the launch team that launch operations will not continue tonight for #AtlasV and #Starliner.https://t.co/yCCjHu9R5K

— ULA (@ulalaunch) May 7, 2024