Boeing Will Try To Launch Its First Crew On Starliner, Again

Cape Canaveral, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Jun, 2024) Troubled aerospace giant Boeing will try once more to fly its first crew to the International Space Station aboard a Starliner spaceship on Saturday, after the last attempt was scrubbed hours before liftoff.

Following checks by engineering teams, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are "go" for launch atop a United Launch Alliance rocket at 12:25 pm (1625 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Saturday. Weather is so far highly favorable.

"We are excited for launch, and we have every confidence in this mission," astronaut Mike Fincke, the backup crew member for the mission, told reporters in a press conference.

The US space agency is looking to certify Boeing as a second commercial operator to ferry crew to the orbital outpost -- something Elon Musk's SpaceX has already been doing since 2020.

Both companies received multi-billion-dollar contracts in 2014 to develop their gumdrop-shaped and autonomously piloted crew capsules, following the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 that left the US temporarily reliant on Russian rockets for rides.

Boeing, with its 100-year history, was heavily favored over its then-upstart competitor, but its program has faced years of delays and safety scares that mirror the myriad problems afflicting its commercial airline division.

Wilmore and Williams were strapped in and ready to blast off on May 6 when a faulty rocket valve forced ground teams to call off that launch.