5/7/24 - Special Launch From Florida Monday Was Called Off

Starlink missions had to call off their launch because of a valve problem.

(spaceflightnow.com) -  SpaceX was gearing up for the first of two Starlink missions from Florida, as Boeing gets ready for the first piloted launch of its Starliner capsule. A Falcon 9 rocket will launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. 

The two NASA test pilots had just strapped into Boeing's Starliner capsule when the countdown was halted, just two hours before the planned liftoff. A United Launch Alliance engineer, Dillon Rice, said the issue involved an oxygen relief valve on the upper stage of the company's Atlas rocket.

There was no immediate word on when the team would try again to launch the test pilots to the International Space Station for a weeklong stay. It was the latest delay for Boeing's first crew flight, on hold for years because of capsule trouble.

The Starliner Crew Flight Test, developed in collaboration with NASA's Commercial Crew Program, was set to launch from Space Launch Complex-41 atop an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:34 p.m. ET before it was called off.