The Atlas V rocket carrying Boeing Co’s new Starliner space capsule will roll back into its hangar to replace a pressure valve, delaying the shuttle’s long-awaited first crewed test flight by at least 10 days, NASA said Tuesday.
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams and NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore were about to board the Boeing Starliner spacecraft for the first Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission to the International Space Station. But the project was shelved due to a technical fault with the rocket’s valve.
The first flight of the CST-100 Starliner is scheduled to carry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday night from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
But the launch was aborted less than two hours into the countdown when a pressure regulating valve malfunctioned in the Atlas rocket’s upper-stage liquid oxygen tank while it was ready for blastoff.
The rocket, a separate component from the Starliner capsule, is supplied and operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture.
