Launch of NASA Astronauts in Boeing’s Starliner Is Scrubbed (2024)

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Here’s what to know about Starliner’s 2nd scrubbed launch attempt.

A flight controller declared “Hold, hold, hold,” and others worked to ensure that the rocket was in a safe state and prepared for the astronauts to disembark.

For the final four minutes, three identical computers perform the same commands for final operations, like retracting propellant lines and releasing the bolts that hold the rocket down until launch.

But one of them was slow in starting up, indicating a problem. For safety, all three computers are required to be operating properly for liftoff.

Early Saturday evening, NASA, Boeing and United Launch Alliance, the manufacturer of the Atlas V rocket, said they needed additional time to analyze the issue and would skip a backup launch opportunity on Sunday. The next opportunities will be on June 5 and June 6.

The space agency retired its space shuttles in 2011. For nine years, astronauts could get to the International Space Station only aboard Russian Soyuz rockets. Then in May 2020, two NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, flew to the I.S.S. in a SpaceX spacecraft, Crew Dragon. That capsule has since become the only way to get to orbit from the United States.

With a successful Starliner demonstration mission, NASA aims to have a second vehicle ready to carry crews to orbit from the United States. Here’s what you need to know about Saturday’s flight:

• Starliner had what is known as an instantaneous launch window — it must launch on time to allow it to catch up with the International Space Station.

• If Starliner still has not launched by June 6, there will be a longer delay of about 10 days to replace the batteries in the Atlas V’s flight termination system. The termination system destroys the rocket if it goes off course; in case of an emergency, Starliner’s engines would carry the capsule and astronauts to safety.

• The two crew members on board Starliner are Butch Wilmore, the commander, and Suni Williams, the pilot. They are experienced NASA astronauts, with Wilmore having spent 167 days in space, and Williams 322 days there. After liftoff, they will spend about a day in orbit before docking with the space station Sunday afternoon. They will stay for about a week, allowing for more tests of the spacecraft and its systems.

• The two astronauts were supposed to launch on May 6. A problem, since repaired, with a valve on the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket that was to carry their Starliner capsule to orbit caused the flight to be called off after Wilmore and Williams were already on board.

• Around the time the astronauts were strapped into their seats in the Starliner on Saturday, U.L.A. flight controllers reported a sensor issue with a valve on the launchpad that regulates the flow of propellants to the Atlas V’s second stage. The team switched to a backup system, which seemed to resolve the issue and allowed the countdown to proceed. There was also a brief problem closer to liftoff with the fans in the astronauts’ spacesuits, but Boeing engineers resolved that issue.

• Starliner itself is years behind schedule, as the work by Boeing and NASA to confirm that the spacecraft was safe to fly stretched far longer than either had expected. Technical pitfalls included inadequate software testing, corroded propellant valves, flammable tape and a key component in the parachute system that turned out to be weaker than designed, and most recently a helium leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. Boeing fixed and studied the problems, enabling Saturday’s launch attempt.

• The delays have left Boeing facing more than $1.4 billion in unexpected charges. The launch attempt comes during a tough 2024 for the aerospace giant. Just days into the year, a panel on the body of a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight. The pilots safely landed the plane and there were no major injuries, but the episode has had widespread repercussions for the company, particularly its aviation division.

Niraj Chokshi contributed reporting.

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They’re moving the countdown to T-4 minutes, at less than two minutes left in the countdown for the 12:25 p.m. liftoff.

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Here’s the flight plan for Starliner’s journey.

Starliner will take more than a day to meet up with the space station. During that time, the two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, will perform tests, including manually flying the spacecraft.

On Tuesday evening, the spacecraft will slowly approach the station, with docking scheduled for 1:50 p.m. Eastern on Sunday.

Starliner, along with Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams, will stay at the space station for about a week, allowing for more tests of the spacecraft and its systems.

“We’re pretty much on a timeline, making sure we’re going to get everything done,” Ms. Williams said during a question-and-answer session before the postponed launch attempt on May 6.

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Boeing’s Starliner capsule has had a long, difficult road to human spaceflight.

December 2019: A ‘high-visibility close call.’

On Dec. 20, 2019, Boeing looked to be in the homestretch.

A Starliner capsule — the same spacecraft that is to take the NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the space station on Saturday — was on the launchpad atop an Atlas V rocket.

The test flight to the space station had no astronauts on board, and its mission was to assess the spacecraft’s navigation, propulsion and docking systems. If the flight were to pass this last technical hurdle, a trip with astronauts aboard could take place within months.

The Atlas V rocket launched flawlessly, releasing Starliner.

And then the mission immediately went awry.

The spacecraft’s clock was set to the wrong time, making Starliner think it was in the wrong location. The capsule fired its thrusters to try to get to where it thought it should be. At the same time, a communications glitch thwarted efforts by flight controllers at mission control to diagnose and fix the problem.

The Starliner spacecraft used up too much propellant, and the planned docking at the space station was called off.

During the troubleshooting, Boeing engineers discovered another software error that would have fired the wrong thrusters during a maneuver leading up to re-entry. NASA labeled the incident a “high-visibility close call” that could have destroyed the spacecraft if the errors had not been patched from the ground during the flight.

An investigation revealed multiple failures in Boeing’s processes that should have caught the mistakes before the launch. An exhaustive audit reviewed one million lines of software code.

NASA officials admitted that maybe they had placed too much trust in Boeing, which had decades of experience working with NASA.

Summer 2021: Corrosion on the launchpad.

NASA and the company decided that a second uncrewed test was needed before a flight with astronauts aboard. The spacecraft was rolled out onto the launchpad in July, but a problem aboard the space station prompted a delay to early August. Then ahead of an Aug. 4 launch attempt, mission managers discovered corroded propellant valves on Starliner that would not open. The test flight was called off and another lengthy round of troubleshooting followed.

May 2022: Another launch, more problems.

The second uncrewed test finally launched on May 19, 2022.

During a maneuver to put Starliner in a stable orbit, two thrusters failed, but the spacecraft was able to compensate. It proceeded to dock at the space station and returned to Earth successfully.

July 2023: Parachutes and tape.

Before the test flight with astronauts aboard, then scheduled for July 2023, two more issues emerged. Protective tape that was wrapped around wiring insulation turned out to be flammable, and a key component in the parachute system was weaker than designed and could break if Starliner’s three parachutes did not deploy properly.

About a mile of the tape was replaced, and the parachute design was upgraded and strengthened, and then retested.

May 2024: Still not ready to fly.

“We’ve been taking our time to go through everything methodically because it is a test flight, and we want it to go well,” Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s commercial crew program, said during a news conference on May 3.

Mark Nappi, the program manager at Boeing for Starliner, said: “We are ready to perform the test flight. And I’ve never felt readier on any mission that I’ve ever participated in.”

But Starliner was still not quite ready.

The countdown on May 6 was proceeding smoothly until a balky valve on the second stage of the Atlas V rocket — unrelated to Starliner — started acting up, vibrating audibly at about 40 times a second.

The launch was called off, and the rocket needed to be taken off the launchpad for the valve to be replaced. That work was completed within a few days.

But a thornier issue emerged.

As the propellants were drained from the tanks of the Atlas V rocket, engineers discovered a small helium leak in the Starliner’s propulsion system.

Helium, an inert gas, is used to push propellants to the thrusters, and if too much helium is lost, the thrusters may not work properly.

The leak was traced to a seal on a helium line leading to one of 28 small thrusters known as reaction control system engines.

“Much like you would have on any piece of your plumbing at home, a faucet or anything like that,” Mr. Stich said during a telephone news conference on May 24. “There’s a seal that keeps that interface tight.”

Tests showed no leaks in the seals leading to the other 27 reaction control system engines, and engineers were confident that the single leak was manageable. There are no plans to replace the seal, which would require pulling Starliner off the Atlas V rocket and would lead to an even lengthier delay for the flight.

“We could handle this particular leak if that leak rate were to grow even up to 100 times,” Mr. Stich said.

The helium leak led NASA and Boeing to take a wider look at the Starliner’s propulsion system, which revealed a “design vulnerability,” Mr. Stich said. If a series of unlikely failures occurred, the spacecraft might not be able to bring the astronauts safely back to Earth.

If there were problems with the larger engines intended to be fired for a maneuver to drop the spacecraft out of orbit, one of the backup plans was to use eight of the smaller thrusters. However, the analysis showed that an additional failure might mean there would be only four of the smaller thrusters available.

The engineers then developed another backup plan to bring Starliner out of orbit with only the four thrusters. NASA and Boeing officials said that after weeks of studying the problem, they were confident they could manage problems that might arise from the leak.

And on Saturday, finally, maybe, Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams will fly on Starliner.

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Boeing’s aviation safety record is under heavy scrutiny this year.

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all Max 9 jets within the United States for several weeks, a headache for Alaska and United Airlines, which rely on the plane. The agency also immediately increased its scrutiny of Boeing and limited the rate at which the company can build the Max at its Seattle-area factory.

On Thursday, Boeing delivered to the F.A.A. a description of the company’s plan to improve quality and safety. That followed earlier efforts to reassure the public of the quality of its planes by describing stepped-up inspections, expanded training, simplified planning and processes, and work to reduce defects.

The F.A.A. said it would hold weekly meetings to monitor Boeing’s progress, which the agency will also be able to track with six real-time indicators like employee proficiency, parts shortages and how much rework had to be done on components it builds.

The company has also shaken up its leadership: The chairman of its board stepped down and its chief executive said he would leave by the end of the year.

Boeing has been in talks to buy Spirit AeroSystems, a troubled supplier that makes the body of the Max, and which had been a part of Boeing until it was spun off two decades ago.

The Alaska Airlines episode ended a relatively smooth run the company had enjoyed since late 2020 when it resumed flights of the 737 Max 8. The company’s reputation had been damaged after two fatal crashes of that plane, in 2018 and 2019, in which 346 people died. The Max was banned globally for nearly two years after those crashes.

Much of the fallout has been limited to Boeing’s commercial planes business, which is distinct from the company’s other two divisions: one that makes military aircraft, missiles, satellites, spacecraft and rockets, and another that provides maintenance and services to the company’s customers.

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The problem is like a gas pump that cannot discern when the tank is full, and involves a valve that is on the launchpad, not in the rocket.

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If you were watching the last launch attempt on May 6, you may be feeling a sense of déjà vu: It was around two hours before launch with Wilmore and Williams strapped into the capsule that a valve issue on the rocket’s second stage led to a scrub of the flight.

This appears to be a different valve than the one that interfered with the May launch.

Some of the astronauts’ luggage is not going to make it to the space station.

The space station receives regular deliveries of cargo. Much of it arrives packed into uncrewed cargo vehicles launched from the United States and Russia. That includes a Russian Progress spacecraft that docked Saturday morning with about three tons of food, fuel and other supplies.

Other times, items are packed along with astronaut crews headed to space.

On Wednesday, a pump failed in the system on the space station that collects and processes the astronauts’ urine, the first step in turning it back to drinkable water. That pump had been expected to last until the fall, and a replacement was set to be delivered by a cargo spacecraft in August.

“It failed a little bit early, which put us in a position where we’d have to store an awful lot of urine,” Dana Weigel, NASA’s program manager for the space station, said during a news conference on Friday. “Obviously, adding two more crew members to that further constrains the storage capability we have on board.”

The pump equipment, which weighs about 150 pounds, was flown to the Kennedy Space Center and loaded onto Starliner. Two suitcases of clothing and toiletries for Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams were removed to make room for it.

“The key for the flight was not to perturb the mass properties,” Ms. Weigel said.

The astronauts will use supplies and clothing already at the space station during their scheduled stay of about a week.

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What is Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft?

At 15 feet in diameter, Starliner is slightly bigger than the Apollo spacecraft. The capsule and the service module — the part of the spacecraft that provides power and propulsion during the flight before being discarded just before landing — are together 16.5 feet in height.

The spacecraft is large enough to carry up to seven astronauts, but NASA missions will carry a crew of four. Boeing has the option of selling a fifth seat to a private customer who wants to tag along.

Each Starliner capsule is designed to be used for up to 10 missions; by contrast, the service module — the cylindrical component below the capsule which contains power, propulsion and life support systems — burns up in the atmosphere, and a new one is needed for each trip.

Boeing has built three Starliner capsules. The first was used only to demonstrate the ability to quickly fly astronauts to safety in case of an emergency on the launchpad. That capsule will not be used for any missions to orbit.

The Starliner used for this mission previously flew in space in 2020 during the first uncrewed test flight, which was cut short because of technical problems. Sunita Williams, the pilot for this mission, has named the spacecraft Calypso, a nod to the research ship used by Jacques Cousteau, a French undersea explorer.

The third Starliner, still unnamed, was used for the second uncrewed test in 2022 and will fly four astronauts to the space station for the first operational mission, scheduled for next year.

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The Starliner astronauts have been patient. Then they had to wait again.

“It almost feels unreal,” Ms. Williams replied.

Then the wait stretched out for almost another month after the first launch attempt on May 6 was called off because of a misbehaving valve in the rocket.

Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams initially remained at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, hoping that the valve could be quickly fixed and that a second attempt could follow within a few days.

But engineers found a small helium leak in the Starliner, requiring arduous troubleshooting.

The two astronauts returned to their home base at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on May 10, but remained in quarantine to minimize contact with other people, and the chances of becoming ill.

“They’re in good spirits,” Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s commercial crew program, said during a news conference on May 24.

Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams spent some of their additional time on the ground in a simulator for the Starliner spacecraft, practicing how to handle a failure of some of the spacecraft’s thrusters — a possible consequence if the helium leak worsened while they were in space.

“They’ve flown all those cases in terms of rendezvous and deorbit and entry, and they’re ready to go,” Mr. Stich said.

Ms. Williams was born in Ohio but grew up in Massachusetts. She was a test pilot in the U.S. Navy and has more than 3,000 hours flying 30 different aircraft. She was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1998. She has spent 322 days in space and for a while held the record for total time on spacewalks by a woman.

Mr. Wilmore, a native of Tennessee, was also a Navy test pilot, and he flew combat missions over Iraq and Bosnia in the 1990s. He was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2000. During his two previous missions, he spent a total of 167 days in space.

Their last trips to orbit were years ago.

Ms. Williams had two long-duration stays on the International Space Station, the second ending in November 2012. Mr. Wilmore served as the pilot of a space shuttle mission in 2009, and then spent five and a half months on the space station from September 2014 to March 2015.

After a glitch-filled test flight in December 2019 with no crew aboard, delays shuffled the astronaut assignments. Indeed, none of the astronauts that NASA named in 2018 to fly on the test flight are on the upcoming test flight.

In 2020, Mr. Wilmore was named commander of the test flight. In 2022, Ms. Williams was shifted to the test flight, serving as the pilot. (She originally was assigned to serve as the commander of the second flight, the first operational one that would take four astronauts to the space station for six months.)

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