The "Crew Flight Test" mission of the Starliner spacecraft has been postponed. It was supposed to be the first with a crew on board, a milestone for the US aerospace manufacturer Boeing, builder of the capsule. The launch, initially scheduled for tonight (Tuesday 7 May at 3:30 am Italian time) was interrupted due to a failure in the Atlas V carrier rocket which was supposed to take the spacecraft into orbit.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) has announced that the launch will not take place before Friday 10 May 2024. The mission will depart from the Kennedy Space Center base, in Cape Canaveral, on Merritt Island, in Florida, United States. On board the CST-100 Starliner capsule will be astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who will spend a week aboard the international orbiting station.

In detail, the postponement of the mission was attributed to a problem with a valve present in the second module of the Atlas rocket. "The valve, which controls fuel pressure in the module responsible for pushing the Starliner to orbit, was audibly buzzing", explained Tory Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance (Ula), which builds the rocket. carrier Atlas V. In short, appointment postponed.