Boeing's “Starliner” was supposed to transport astronauts to the ISS long ago. But the project is plagued by crises. Now another launch has had to be canceled.
A planned first manned test flight of the crisis-ridden spacecraft “Starliner” was again aborted shortly before takeoff. Around three minutes before the space capsule was due to take off from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida, there was initially a temporary stop, then the launch was canceled entirely by the US space agency NASA.
The reasons for this were initially unclear. There was probably an error in a computer system on the ground, the space agency said.
“Starliner” as an alternative to the “Dragon” capsule
The test flight was aborted shortly before takeoff about a month ago and has been postponed again and again since then. NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams were actually supposed to set off for the International Space Station ISS on board the “Starliner” and stay there for about a week. According to NASA, there would be further launch opportunities on Sunday and on June 5 and 6. However, it was initially unclear whether one could be used.
NASA plans to regularly use the “Starliner” alongside SpaceX's “Dragon” capsule to transport astronauts to the space station. The “Dragon” capsule from multi-billionaire Elon Musk's company has been transporting astronauts to the ISS on behalf of NASA for several years. The “Starliner” program, on the other hand, has suffered a number of setbacks in recent years.
