Boeing’s Starliner spaceship faced yet another delay for its crewed test flight on Saturday, marking the fifth postponement.
Originally set to launch on May 6, the CST-100 Starliner was scheduled for a new attempt at 12:25 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, 26 days after the initial date. However, issues with a valve on the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and a helium leak in the Starliner’s propulsion system caused delays on May 17, 21, and 25.
The June 1 launch was aborted with less than four minutes remaining in the countdown due to a problem with the ground launch sequencer. NASA has yet to explain the specific issue.
Boeing, NASA, and ULA decided not to launch on Sunday, aiming for a new attempt on June 5 or 6 instead.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams require about an hour to exit the Starliner. Once all problems are resolved, they will travel to the International Space Station for a two-week stay.
Saturday’s launch was broadcasted on NASA TV starting at 8:15 a.m. Eastern time, with approximately 130,000 viewers when the launch was scrubbed.
Once in space, Wilmore and Williams will reach the space station about 24 hours post-launch. The Starliner is also carrying cargo, including food, medical supplies, and spare parts.
This mission is the first crewed flight for the Starliner, following an unsuccessful uncrewed test in 2019 due to a docking error, and a successful uncrewed flight in May 2022 after valve problems delayed an earlier attempt in August 2021. The crewed flight was initially planned for July 2023 but was postponed due to a parachute issue.
Starliner is competing with SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. In 2014, NASA chose Boeing and SpaceX to transport astronauts to the ISS, reducing reliance on Russia since the last Space Shuttle mission in 2011. SpaceX achieved this first, sending astronauts to the ISS in 2020.
For Boeing, the success of Starliner is more about rebuilding reputation than competing with SpaceX. Boeing shares have dropped 32% this year, lagging behind the S&P 500 by nearly 43 percentage points. Most of this decline followed a January 5 incident with a 737 MAX 9 jet’s emergency-door plug, raising concerns about Boeing’s manufacturing quality and financial performance.
Boeing’s commercial airplane division reported $4.7 billion in sales and a $1.1 billion operating loss in the first quarter, down from $13.7 billion in sales and $1.5 billion in operating profit in the first quarter of 2018. The defense, space, and security division generated around $7 billion in sales and $151 million in operating profit for the first quarter of 2024, primarily driven by defense contracts.
