Scrubbed again! This time, NASA’s first Boeing Starliner mission carrying astronauts got called off with fewer than four minutes left in the countdown Saturday afternoon at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
“Hold. The countdown has been stopped. Safing of the Atlas V, Starliner and launch pad systems is underway,” United Launch Alliance officials announced in a 12:22 p.m. EDT tweet, just three minutes before the scheduled liftoff from Launch Complex 41.
NASA Commercial Crew officials later announced that the mission scrubbed “due to the computer ground launch sequencer not loading into the correct operational configuration after proceeding into terminal count.”
Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, NASA, ULA rocket launch schedule in Florida
Officials did not announce a new launch target date or time by FLORIDA TODAY’s press deadline.
During a pre-launch press conference, NASA officials said Starliner’s next backup launch opportunity is 12:03 p.m. Sunday. If that date does not prove feasible, crews would stand down for a couple days ahead of new launch opportunities later in the week, on Wednesday and Thursday.
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were initially scheduled to guide the Starliner capsule on its first crewed test flight on May 6 — but that mission scrubbed with about two hours to go because of a liquid-oxygen valve issue on the Atlas V rocket’s Centaur upper stage.
Then during repairs, crews discovered a thruster helium leak on the spacecraft, triggering more delays leading up to Saturday’s unsuccessful launch attempt.
For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Boeing Starliner launch scrubs again with less than four minutes to go
Signup bonus from
