Boeing Co's new astronaut capsule, The CST-100 Starliner, failed after liftoff from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Friday to climb high enough in orbit to reach the International Space Station, cutting short a critical unmanned test mission in the embattled aerospace giant's race to send humans to the orbital outpost, SIA reports referring to Reuters.
The Starliner's debut launch to orbit was a milestone test for Boeing, which is vying with SpaceX, the privately held rocket company of billionaire high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, to revive NASA's human spaceflight capabilities. SpaceX carried out a successful unmanned flight of its Crew Dragon capsule to the space station in March.
The implications for any further design and testing requirements before Starliner is approved for its first crewed mission also remained unclear. The prospect that Boeing might need to repeat an unmanned orbital test flight could substantially delay NASA's timeline and drive up costs.
The plan now is for the capsule to return to Earth on Sunday, about a week ahead of schedule, parachuting to the ground at its designated landing site in White Sands, New Mexico, Boeing's space chief executive, Jim Chilton, said.
The craft, while stable, has already burned too much fuel to risk further maneuvers trying to dock with the space station at this point, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a news conference.
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