The highly-anticipated first crewed mission of Boeing’s Starliner was delayed indefinitely Tuesday night and will not take off as planned Saturday. A new launch target was not announced.
The delay comes as a result of a helium leak from the capsule’s propulsion system.
“The team has been in meetings for two consecutive days, assessing flight rationale, system performance, and redundancy,” NASA said in a statement Tuesday. “There is still forward work in these areas, and the next possible launch opportunity is still being discussed.”
A series of technical issues has waylaid the launch of the CST-100 Starliner, which was initially fueled up and ready for liftoff May 6 before the mission was scrubbed. The Starliner’s crew, Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, were even aboard the capsule before they had no choice but to exit and head back to their quarters.
Starliner is intended to be a vehicle that can ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station as NASA pivots to more partnerships with private industry.
As part of NASA’s commercial crew program, Boeing was awarded $4.8 billion, while its competitor, SpaceX, was awarded $3.1 billion in 2014 to develop their respective spacecraft, Florida Today reported. Under NASA’s more ambitious commercial lunar program, it’s also paid SpaceX $2.9 billion to develop the first commercial human lander for the agency’s Artemis moon missions and eventually trips to Mars.
SpaceX scheduled to launch three rockets this week
SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 NROL-146 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California around 1 a.m. P.T. Wednesday, according to the company’s website.
The mission was the 16th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, previously launched NROL-87, NROL-85, SARah-1, SWOT, Transporter-8, Transporter-9 and nine Starlink missions, according to SpaceX.
SpaceX is scheduled to launch a Falcon 9 rocket with the latest batch of group six Starlink satellites Wednesday night from Cape Canaveral. According to a Geospatial Navigational Warning and FAA Advisory, a launch window runs from 10:33 p.m. tonight to 3:04 a.m. Thursday. While SpaceX has yet to confirm, the FAA shows the mission as being Starlink 6-62.
While SpaceX typically launches in the earlier part of that window, the weather on the Space Coast, as well as the booster landing location, play a part in timing. However, according to the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, conditions for tonight’s launch window will be 95% favorable.
Thursday, SpaceX plans to launch yet another batch of Starlink satellites. This launch window runs from 6:45 p.m. until 11:16 p.m. Thursday. SpaceX has yet to confirm this mission, yet the FAA states the mission as Starlink 6-63.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstars.
Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.
