According to US media reports, on the 6th local time, the first manned test flight of Boeing's interstellar aircraft was cancelled due to technical malfunctions.
The interstellar plane was originally scheduled to take off at 22:34 Eastern Time on the 6th at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida, to transport American astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams to the International Space Station. The launch mission was forced to be cancelled about two hours before the countdown ended due to a valve problem on the Cosmos 5 carrier rocket of the United States Joint Launch Alliance. If the technical issue can be quickly resolved, the rocket may attempt to launch again on the evening of the 7th.
Since the retirement of the US space shuttle in 2011, the country has been vigorously developing commercial manned space operations. Boeing and SpaceX received a manned spacecraft project contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2014 to build the Starplane and Dragon spacecraft, respectively. NASA plans to use these two manned spacecraft to take turns transporting astronauts to the space station.
According to the initial plan, the spacecraft developed by these two companies should launch a manned flight mission in 2017, but both sides have seriously delayed the progress. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft made its first manned test flight in May 2020, sending two American astronauts to the International Space Station. Afterwards, the spacecraft carried out manned flight missions multiple times. The development progress of Boeing's interstellar aircraft has been delayed multiple times due to technical issues, resulting in losses of over $1 billion for the company.
The interstellar aircraft conducted its first unmanned test flight in December 2019, but failed to enter the scheduled orbit. In May 2022, the second unmanned test flight of the interstellar aircraft was conducted. Although there was a thruster malfunction at one point, the spacecraft eventually entered its intended orbit smoothly. In the end, the interstellar plane returned to Earth from the International Space Station and landed in the western desert region of the United States. Afterwards, the manned test flight of the interstellar aircraft also experienced multiple delays. (End)