Test flight of Starliner carrying Sunita Williams postponed

The long-awaited first crewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft was called off for at least 24 hours over a technical glitch with the Atlas V rocket that was being readied to launch the new astronaut capsule to orbit on Monday night.

The CST-100 Starliner's inaugural voyage carrying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) has been highly anticipated and much-delayed as Boeing scrambles to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX for a greater share of lucrative NASA business.

"Tuesday's Starliner launch is scrubbed as teams evaluate an oxygen relief valve on the Centaur Stage on the Atlas V. Our astronauts have exited Starliner and will return to crew quarters," said NASA in a post on X. Indian-origin astronaut Captain Sunita Williams and her colleague, veteran NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, were part of the mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

The launch, which would have marked the first crewed test flight of the Starliner, was scheduled to take place at 8:04 am IST on Tuesday from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. As part of its commitment to the ISS, Boeing has planned six manned missions for the Starliner over the next six years. NASA intends to use both SpaceX's Dragon and Boeing's Starliner to send astronauts to the ISS at least every six months from US soil.