Boeing Starliner Spacecraft is Postponed due to Technical Glitch

Boeing Starliner, which is designed to carry astronauts and compete with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, is delayed. One more setback in a series of them is for a trial that NASA and Boeing desperately want to go off without any major issues.

A Boeing Starliner capsule had been scheduled to take off earlier this week on an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station, a follow-up to the company’s botched first attempt. This mission will be a strong moment for Boeing and NASA, as the traditional aerospace giant seeks to join the relative upstart SpaceX in transporting people to the station.

After the lightning storm rolled through the launch site in Florida where the spacecraft was sitting atop its rocket on Monday, Boeing ran some checks to ensure the vehicle wasn’t affected. That’s when they discovered an issue with the Starliner’s propulsion system. A valve was out of place, and the reason behind it was unclear.

So far Officials have only ruled out software issues, according to a statement from Boeing. That indicates the current issue is unrelated to the hangups that plagued Boeing’s first orbital Starliner launch attempt in 2019 when software issues caused the capsule to misfire and stumble off course and forced it to make an early return to Earth.As of late Tuesday evening, Boeing and NASA teams were still troubleshooting the issue, taking potential takeoff times on Wednesday off the table. It was not clear as of Wednesday morning when the issue will be resolved or when Boeing will once again attempt to launch. A NASA spokesman said a new target date will be determined after the additional checks are carried out.