Boeing and NASA postponed the first crewed flight of the company’s already long-delayed space taxi on Saturday, halting the countdown less than four minutes before takeoff due to a launchpad computer system issue.
The CST-100 Starliner’s flight from Florida to the International Space Station is a critical test to prove the craft can safely carry people to and from the orbiting research laboratory for NASA.
A launchpad sequencer that controls vital systems during the final countdown triggered the abort, the latest setback for a launch effort years in the making. NASA said it’s forgoing a possible launch on Sunday to allow the agency, United Launch Alliance and Boeing time to determine what went wrong.