On Saturday, June 1st Eastern Time, with less than four minutes left in the countdown to launch, Boeing and NASA once again postponed the first manned test flight of the Starliner spacecraft. However, people do not seem surprised by this result.
The launch mission was originally scheduled to take place at 12:25 noon Eastern Time on June 1st at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida. Boeing's interstellar passenger plane will board the Cosmos 5 carrier rocket, take two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to the International Space Station, and return to Earth a week later.
According to NASA officials, as the rocket was about to launch, the ground system computer triggered an automatic abort command, pausing the countdown clock.
It is currently unclear why the abort command was initiated and how long it will take to resolve potential issues, but the next available launch window is around noon on Sunday Eastern Time.
Boeing signed a $4.2 billion contract with NASA in 2014 to develop spacecraft for commercial manned spaceflight missions, originally scheduled for delivery and operation in 2017. However, due to a series of technical malfunctions and failures, the manned test flight has not been completed yet, and the cost has exceeded $1.5 billion.
In December 2019, due to software and engineering failures, the interstellar passenger spacecraft failed to enter its scheduled orbit for the first unmanned test flight and was forced to cancel its mission to the International Space Station. The second attempt in 2022 was successful, paving the way for the first manned testing mission.
On May 6th this year, the first manned test mission of the interstellar spacecraft was postponed due to issues with the oxygen valve. Subsequently, due to other engineering issues, this task was postponed for several weeks.
This test flight is at a particularly critical moment for Boeing, as the company is deeply embroiled in various scandals and urgently needs to succeed in the space industry to improve its image.
Boeing CFO Brian West stated at a meeting in May that due to the& quot; Cost pressure; quot;， The company's defense and space departments are expected to incur losses in the second quarter.
At a time when Boeing was in trouble, SpaceX had become an important partner of NASA, and the "Dragon" spacecraft developed by SpaceX had already carried out routine commercial manned space missions multiple times. Since 2020, the Dragon spacecraft has been NASA's only means of transporting astronauts from the United States to the International Space Station.
Morgan Stanley analyst Seth Seifman pointed out in a recent research report that the recent launch delay may force Boeing to increase the cost of interstellar aircraft once again.