A few hours after liftoff, NASA canceled the launch of the Boeing Starliner for safety reasons

release Boeing’s first manned space mission It was canceled on Monday when there were about two hours remaining for takeoff International Space Station (ESS) from Cape Canaveralin Florida (United States of America).

The reason for the cancellation was a failure in one of the valves of the launch missile. Atlas Vfrom a private company United Launch Alliance (ULA) on which the vessel is installed Starliner to Boeingstated a pot.

The decision to cancel the liftoff was made Monday by ULA’s launch director, Tom Heater IIIAccording to the US Space Agency, the teams will examine one of the vehicle’s oxygen valves Atlas VThat’s where the root of the technical malfunction seems to lie.

“NASA’s first priority is safety. We’ll go when we’re ready“The manager said a pot, Bill NelsonWho confirmed the cancellation in this way.

the Starliner It was scheduled to lift off Monday evening at 10:34 p.m. local time (2:34 GMT Wednesday) from the launch complex. Space power station to Cape Canaveralwith astronauts a pot on board, Barry “Butch” Wilmore And Sunita Williams.

Not even a pot The private company has not currently announced the possibility of this New release date.

the mission Boeing CFT (Crew Flight Test) Aims to obtain the necessary certificates for a pot To be able to start acting as a second provider for transporting crew and cargo to the so-called orbital laboratory, a service that the company has already officially provided since 2020. SpaceX.

The American Space Agency gave Boeing Since 2014 until now, about $4.2 billion have been spent on achieving this goal, and therefore expectations were high today Cape Canaveral.

In that same time period, SpaceX It received $2.6 billion and its capsule the Dragon It has already made more than a dozen flights to International Space Stationsome differences pointed out by its CEO Pole Elon Muskwhich is in a letter in shours before the scheduled takeoff, released a possible explanation: “There are too many non-technical managers at Boeing“.

The cancellation adds to a series of setbacks he has suffered Starlinerwho managed to fly to International Space Station On a first test mission, without a crew, in May 2022, after two failed attempts in 2019 and 2021.

Your facing First manned mission There was no shortage of setbacks BoeingThe launch date for this mission was set on July 21, 2023, but the discovery of malfunctions in the parachute system and in some insulating tapes made of fiberglass forced it to be postponed with a month and a half remaining.

“I can say with complete confidence that the teams did their due diligence,” he said last week. James FreeAssistant Director of a potThis was during a telephone conference in which he explained his confidence in the success of the mission that was scheduled to launch today.

Al-Horr added that Financing terrorism It’s a test flight, so astronauts and space observers expect unexpected events to occur.

(With information from EFE)