Boeing's Starliner capsule with its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launch to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Aug. 2, 2021. This was ahead of the planned launch on Aug. 3. The liftoff didn't happen. Teams needed to examine a potential problem with Starliner’s propulsion system valves.It may take a while before we see the Starliner astronaut taxi take off again.Starliner was initially scheduled to launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station last Friday, July 30, on an uncrewed mission to NASA's International Space Station called Orbital Flight Test 2 or OFT-2.The orbiting laboratory was tilted by the unexpected thruster firings from Russia's Nauka module on Thursday (July 29, 2012). However, OFT-2's liftoff was delayed to Tuesday (Aug. 3), to allow station managers to assess the situation.Boeing informed the Starliner team that they had found "unexpected valve positions indications" in its propulsion system just hours before launch on Tuesday. NASA and Boeing both resigned from the day's attempts to investigate the issue. They stated that a liftoff on Wednesday (Aug. 4th) was still possible.Live updates: Follow the Starliner OFT-2 mission of Boeing hereHowever, this is no longer true. Boeing representatives stated Tuesday evening that Starliner would not fly Wednesday and didn't provide a new launch date.John Vollmer, vice-president and program manager for Boeings Commercial Crew Program said that "We're going let the data guide our work." "Our team worked hard to ensure safety and success on this mission. We will not launch until the vehicle performs nominally and our teams feel it is ready to fly.Starliner and the rocket ride it is riding, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V, will be returned to their launch pad on Wednesday for "further inspection and testing to inform our next steps," according to the statement. This will be their second reverse trip. They were previously rolled from the launch pad to the assembly facility on Friday (30 July) in order to protect them against inclement weather.Starliner was developed by Boeing with NASA's Commercial Crew Program funding. This program also supported SpaceX's work to develop its astronaut taxi, Crew Dragon. Crew Dragon is now fully operational and in the middle its second contract crewed mission. NASA will be sending Starliner to the station on October 2. Starliner needs to pass OFT-2 before it can transport astronauts.OFT-2, as the name implies, will be the second such flight of the Boeing spacecraft. In December 2019, Starliner experienced several software problems and was stranded in an incorrect orbit for a meetup with the space station. After two days of orbiting alone, it returned to Earth.Although the nature of the propulsion valve problem remains a mystery at this time, Boeing representatives stated that engineering teams have "ruled out many possible causes, including software." The statement states that the issues were discovered during checkouts on Monday after electrical storms passed above Kennedy Space Center. This refers to the NASA center next to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
