Sunita Williams’ third trip to space has been postponed as the launch of the Boeing Starline has been scrubbed due to a technical glitch. No new date has been announced for the launch.
Sunita Williams’ third spaceflight was postponed due to a technical glitch due to which the launch of the Boeing Starline was scrubbed. The space agency Nasa is yet to announce a date for the launch.
Standing down on tonight’s attempt to launch #Starliner. As I’ve said before, @NASA’s first priority is safety. We go when we’re ready. https://t.co/KIasomZG66— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) May 7, 2024
Williams would have been in space today aboard a brand-new spacecraft as the Boeing Starliner was set to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Tuesday morning (IST).
“Standing down on tonight’s attempt to launch Starliner. As I’ve said before, NASA’s first priority is safety. We go when we’re ready,” Nasa administrator Bill Nelson said.
The launch of the Atlas V rocket was called off 90 minutes before the lift-off. Nasa said that the off-nominal condition on an oxygen relief valve led to the postponement of the launch.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were strapped in their seats preparing for liftoff when the call for a “scrub” came, in order to give engineers time to investigate unusual readings from an oxygen relief valve on the second stage of the rocket, a report by news agency AFP said.
Nasa’s Barry Wilmore and Williams safely exited the spacecraft shortly after.
Sunita Williams held the record for the maximum hours of spacewalk by a woman until colleague Peggy Whitson broke her record. The Indian-American cosmonaut has already spent 322 days in space.
If the launch proceeded as planned, William would have made history as the first woman to fly on a maiden crewed mission of a new spacecraft.
Williams and Wilmore were scheduled to spend 8 days on the International Space Station (ISS) and will return to Earth on May 15. Aboard the ISS they were expected to carry out several tests.
The aircraft that would have returned them back home was supposed to make a land-based touchdown and would not have splashed down in the sea.
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