A last-minute problem thwarted Saturday’s launch attempt for Boeing’s first astronaut flight, the latest in a series of delays over the years.
Two NASA astronauts were strapped into the Starliner capsule at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when the countdown was automatically stopped at 3 minutes and 50 seconds by the computer system that controls the final minutes before liftoff.
With just a split second left before takeoff, there was no time to fix the last problem and everything was cancelled. It was not immediately clear why the computers aborted the countdown.
Launch controllers were evaluating the data, said Dillon Rice of United Launch Alliance. But it’s possible the team could try again as soon as Sunday, depending on what went wrong.
Technicians rushed to the pad to help astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams exit the capsule atop the fully fueled Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. An hour after the launch was cancelled, the hatch reopened.
It was the second launch attempt. The first attempt on May 6 was delayed to check for leaks and repair the rocket.
NASA wants a backer for SpaceX, which has been transporting astronauts since 2020.
Boeing should have launched its first crew around the same time as SpaceX, but its first test flight with no one on board in 2019 was plagued by serious software problems and never reached the space station.
NASA wants to have an alternative to SpaceX, which has been ferrying astronauts to and from the orbital outpost for four years.
[Con informes de The Associated Press]
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