Space travel
NASA cancels first manned test flight with “Starliner”.
The plan was actually for Wilmore and Williams to set off with the “Starliner” on its first manned test flight to the International Space Station (ISS). photo
© John Raoux/AP/dpa
The “Starliner” was supposed to transport astronauts long ago, but the project is far behind schedule. The first manned test flight must now be canceled again.
Shortly before the first manned test flight of the crisis-plagued spacecraft “Starliner”, the planned launch that night was canceled. An oxygen valve on the “Atlas V” rocket had to be examined, the US space agency NASA said.
The two NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams left the “Starliner” capsule and returned to their crew quarters at the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida. A new date for the test flight, which had previously been postponed several times, was not initially announced.
The plan had actually been for Wilmore and Williams to set off with the “Starliner” on its first manned test flight to the International Space Station (ISS). They were supposed to arrive there tomorrow and stay for about a week. For the arrival of the “Starliner”, the “Crew Dragon” that was docked there was moved to another docking station on the ISS.
In May 2022, the “Starliner,” developed and built by US aircraft manufacturer Boeing, completed a successful unmanned flight to the ISS for the first time and spent four days there – an important test for the spacecraft. In the future, it will transport astronauts to the ISS as an alternative to SpaceX’s “Crew Dragon” space capsule. However, due to a number of problems, the project is well behind schedule.