Sunita Williams to wait for her third space mission as flight aborted hours before takeoff

The Indian-origin Sunita Williams, who was all set for her third space mission, has to wait as the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s new Starliner space capsule was cancelled on Tuesday following technical issues. The announcement was made during a live NASA webcast which stated that the postponement was due to an issue with a valve in the rocket’s second stage. Boeing Starliner was all set to take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida’s Cape Canaveral at 8.04 am IST.

“NASA, Boeing, and United Launch Alliance scrubbed the launch opportunity on Monday, May 6 for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station due to a faulty oxygen relief valve observation on the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Centaur second stage,” said the space agency in a statement.

The two NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore(61) and Sunita Williams(58), were ready and buckled into their seats about an hour before the the mission was called off. They will be guided out of the spacecraft by the technicians awaiting a second launch attempt.

There hasn’t been any announcement for the timings of the second liftoff attempt but there is a possible launch opportunity on Tuesday night.

Wilmore and Williams will test the Starliner’s systems and capabilities, clearing its path to start operational crew flights to the space station. The triumphant in the Crew Flight Test will take the Starliner closer to regularly transporting personnel to and from the International Space Station (ISS), strengthening the United State’s space access.

William was assigned the mission in 2015 after waiting over a decade for a commercial crew flight as her experience in commercial spacecraft came to work. Later in 2022, she was assigned to the CFT mission.

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