The takeoff of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was canceled on Saturday June 1, 2024 less than four minutes from the time of launch, due to a technical problem not immediately clearly identified, NASA announced.
This is the second postponement of takeoff in less than a month for this mission, which should allow Starliner to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
The countdown stopped 4 minutes before launch
Takeoff was scheduled for Saturday at 12:25 p.m. from Cape Canaveral, Florida (4:25 p.m. GMT). NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two space veterans, were installed aboard the Starliner capsule placed atop an Atlas V rocket from the ULA group.
But the countdown was stopped at the last moment by a system that was triggered automatically, for a reason still unknownexplained NASA.
Teams from ULA, Boeing and NASA then began putting the rocket into a safe configuration so that the two astronauts could exit.
Fallback dates for takeoff are theoretically possible on Sunday, as well as next Wednesday or Thursday, but the analysis of the problem encountered must be carried out before a new date can be announced.
Ten years ago, NASA ordered two new vehicles from American companies Boeing and SpaceX to transport its astronauts to the Space Station (ISS). SpaceX has already been playing this role of space taxi for four years.
Already shaken by safety problems on its planes, Boeing is gambling its reputation on this test mission, which must serve to demonstrate that its ship is safe before starting regular missions to the ISS.
For NASA, the stakes are also high: having a second vehicle would allow it to better manage possible emergency situations.
New setback
The cancellation on Saturday is a new setback for this mission, which has already fallen years behind schedule.
At the beginning of May, the takeoff had already been canceled at the last moment due to a problem with a valve on the rocket, which has since been changed.
A small helium leak was then discovered on one of the ship’s thrusters. But Boeing and NASA decided not to repair it, which would require dismantling Starliner.
“We really think we can handle this leak”, Steve Stich, head of the commercial human spaceflight program at NASA, said on Friday. It did not expand during preparations for the flight Saturday morning, the agency said.
These setbacks were just the latest in a series of unpleasant surprises.
In 2019, during a first uncrewed test, the spacecraft could not be placed on the correct trajectory and returned without reaching the ISS. Then in 2021 a problem with blocked valves on the capsule led to the postponement of a new attempt.
The empty vehicle finally managed to reach the ISS in May 2022.
Other problems subsequently discovered, notably with the parachutes braking the capsule during its return to the atmosphere, again caused delays.
Urine pump
Butch Wilmore, 61, and Suni Williams, 58, have already been to the ISS twice, each aboard the former American space shuttle and then a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
But this time it is about testing a brand new vehicle, this example of which has been named Calypso, in homage to Commander Cousteau’s ship. Both came from the US Navy, they actively participated in its development.
The ship must also carry with it equipment added at the last minute: enough to repair the system allowing astronauts’ urine to be recycled into water in the ISS.
A pump suddenly stopped working this week, and urine must be stored on board in the meantime, but these capacities are limited.
Handful of vessels
Only a handful of American ships have carried astronauts in the past.
After the shutdown of the space shuttles in 2011, NASA astronauts had to travel aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
It is to put an end to this dependence that in 2014, the American space agency signed a contract worth 4.2 billion dollars with Boeing and 2.6 billion with SpaceX for the development of new spacecraft.
To everyone’s surprise, SpaceX largely beat Boeing by transporting its first astronauts to the ISS in 2020.
Once Starliner is operational, NASA wants to alternate between SpaceX and Boeing flights.
