The second attempt to send Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule into orbit was scrubbed just minutes before it was set to launch.NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams were strapped into the company’s Starline capsule and awaiting liftoff when the countdown was halted at three minutes and 50 seconds. The ship was initially scheduled for liftoff from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:25 p.m. EDT, roughly the moment Earth’s rotation carried the pad into alignment with the space station’s orbit.With only a split second to take off Saturday afternoon, there was no time to work the latest trouble and everything was called off.The next possible launch window is Sunday. It was not immediately clear if they would be able to fix the problem in time.Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule, perched atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, stands poised for blastoff from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (file photo). / Credit: United Launch AllianceThe long-awaited flight will be the first piloted launch of an Atlas 5 and the first for the Atlas family of rockets since astronaut Gordon Cooper took off just a few miles away on the Mercury program’s final flight 61 years ago.Likewise, it will be the first piloted flight of the Starliner, Boeing’s answer to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, an already operational, less expensive spacecraft that has carried 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and civilians into orbit in 13 flights, 12 of them to the space station, since an initial piloted test flight in May 2020.Commander Barry NASA funded the development of both spacecraft to ensure the agency could launch crews to the outpost even if one company’s ferry ship were grounded for any reason.Already running years behind schedule because of budget shortfalls and a variety of technical problems that cost Boeing more than $1 billion to correct, NASA had …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnThe second attempt to send Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule into orbit was scrubbed just minutes before it was set to launch.NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams were strapped into the company’s Starline capsule and awaiting liftoff when the countdown was halted at three minutes and 50 seconds. The ship was initially scheduled for liftoff from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:25 p.m. EDT, roughly the moment Earth’s rotation carried the pad into alignment with the space station’s orbit.With only a split second to take off Saturday afternoon, there was no time to work the latest trouble and everything was called off.The next possible launch window is Sunday. It was not immediately clear if they would be able to fix the problem in time.Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule, perched atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, stands poised for blastoff from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (file photo). / Credit: United Launch AllianceThe long-awaited flight will be the first piloted launch of an Atlas 5 and the first for the Atlas family of rockets since astronaut Gordon Cooper took off just a few miles away on the Mercury program’s final flight 61 years ago.Likewise, it will be the first piloted flight of the Starliner, Boeing’s answer to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, an already operational, less expensive spacecraft that has carried 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and civilians into orbit in 13 flights, 12 of them to the space station, since an initial piloted test flight in May 2020.Commander Barry NASA funded the development of both spacecraft to ensure the agency could launch crews to the outpost even if one company’s ferry ship were grounded for any reason.Already running years behind schedule because of budget shortfalls and a variety of technical problems that cost Boeing more than $1 billion to correct, NASA had …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
