This morning, the American space agency NASA was supposed to launch the Boeing Starliner spacecraft with two astronauts into orbit for the first time; This ship would test its behavior in different modes and after being in a colliding situation with the ISS for a week. He would return to Earth. Start-up had to be postponed due to the failure of the safety valve in the oxygen supply system.

The failure of this valve was diagnosed before launch on the second stage of the ULA Atlas V launch vehicle. Following the decision to cancel the launch, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams left the Boeing Starliner spacecraft on the launch pad in Fla. Return to location in Cape Canaveral. It’s unclear when the reboot will happen, but a decision should be made within the next day.

The history of the Boeing Starliner project is full of delays, the first unmanned flight in 2019 ended in failure, this device managed to dock with the ISS in unmanned mode only in 2022 and was supposed to make its first flight with astronauts on board. Last May, however, the post was retained for a year. Boeing built the Starliner as part of a $4.2 billion contract with NASA to provide the American space agency with an alternative to SpaceX’s services to transport astronauts to the ISS. Elon Musk’s rival company has monopolized this field since 2020, but NASA wants to have a second contractor in this field.