Boeing and NASA announced Sunday that their teams were preparing to launch the new Starliner space capsule on June 5, after canceling the attempt to launch its first test flight on Saturday.
The Starliner capsule was ready to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, before a computer in the ground system triggered an automatic abort command that halted the launch sequence.
NASA said its teams worked through the night to assess ground support equipment on the launch pad that encountered problems during the countdown and identified a problem with a ground power supply in the launch pad. one of the chassis that provides power to a subset of computer boards that control various system functions.
The chassis containing the faulty ground power unit was removed, visually inspected and replaced with a replacement chassis, the space agency said.
The CST-200 Starliner’s first crewed trip to the International Space Station (ISS), with two astronauts on board, remains a key milestone for Boeing as it strives to secure a larger share of NASA’s now lucrative business. dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Once launched, the Starliner is expected to arrive at the space station after a flight of about 24 hours and dock with the research outpost orbiting some 250 miles (402 km) above Earth.
