Sunita Williams' 3rd space voyage on Boeing Starliner called off two hours before liftoff
Sunita Williams and NASA's Barry Wilmore, who were to fly the Starliner to the International Space Station, had just strapped into Boeing's Starliner capsule when the countdown was halted
Indian-origin Sunita Williams' third mission to space called off just two hours before the planned liftoff on Monday (May 7) night.
The Boeing Starliner, which was the company's first astronaut launch, was to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida's Cape Canaveral at 8.04 am India time. However, it was postponed due to a technical glitch. A new date has not been announced for the launch.
According to reports, the two NASA test pilots, Sunita Williams and NASA's Barry Wilmore, who were to fly the Starliner to the International Space Station, had just strapped into Boeing's Starliner capsule when the countdown was halted, just two hours before the planned liftoff. The two astranouts have safely exited the spacecraft.
Oxygen relief valve
A United Launch Alliance engineer, Dillon Rice, said the issue involved an oxygen relief valve on the upper stage of the company's Atlas rocket, reported AP.
There was no immediate word on when the team would try again to launch the test pilots to the International Space Station for a weeklong stay. It was the latest delay for Boeing's first crew flight, on hold for years because of capsule trouble.
“In a situation like this, if we see any data signature is not something that we have seen before, then we are just simply not willing to take any chances with what is our most precious payload,” Rice said, said the news report.
Sunita Williams
For 59-year-old Indian origin astronaut Sunita Williams, this trip would have been her third space travel. She admitted that she was a 'bit nervous' but said she had no jitters about flying in a new spacecraft. She had helped design the Starliner, working with engineers from NASA and Boeing.
"When I reach the International Space Station, it will be like going back home," she said in an interview. She also told the media that she planned to carry a Lord Ganesha idol on this journey, since he is her "good luck charm". Before she had carried a copy of the 'Bhagwad Gita'.
Sunita has already spent 322 days in space and held the record for having completed maximum hours of spacewalk by a woman until she was overtaken by Peggy Whitson.
In this space trip, Williams would have had the chance to make history as the first woman to fly on a maiden crewed mission of a new space shuttle. Williams went on her first space voyage on December 9, 2006, which lasted till June 22, 2007.
On that voyage, she established a world record for women by doing four spacewalks for a total time of 29 hours and 17 minutes.
Her second voyage was from July 14 to November 18, 2012.
Starliner's first test flight in 2019
Starliner's first test flight without a crew in 2019 failed to reach the space station and Boeing had to repeat the flight. Then the company encountered parachute issues and flammable tape.
NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to ferry astronauts to and from the space station after the shuttle program ended, paying the private companies billions of dollars.
SpaceX has been in the orbital taxi business since 2020.
