Boeing delays first test flight of Starliner to the space station due to launch pad problems

Boeing has delayed the first test flight of its Starliner crew capsule to the International Space Station.

The launch is now targeted for 19 December.

NASA said Tuesday that the two-day postponement was caused by problems with ground equipment at the Cape Canaveral pad. Both the Starliner and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket are healthy, officials said.

It will be the first trip to space by a Starliner. No astronauts will be aboard. Instead, a mannequin loaded with sensors and named Rosie — after World War II’s Rosie the Riveter — will occupy the commander’s seat.

[caption id=“attachment_7741891” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is guided into position above a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Image credit: AP[/caption]

SpaceX conducted a similar test flight of its Dragon crew capsule in March.

The two companies expect to start launching astronauts to the space station for NASA next year. It will be the first time since the end of NASA’s space shuttle program in 2011 that U.S. astronauts rocket into orbit from home soil.

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NASA astronauts have been riding Russian rockets to the space station, for tens of millions of dollars per seat, while awaiting the repeatedly delayed commercial crew vehicles.

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