Indian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, the poster girl for women aspiring to fly into space, was set to reach for the skies again today in a brand-new spacecraft, but it did not happen as planned.
The launch into space on the Boeing Starliner was "scrubbed" or called off just three minutes and fifty-one seconds before lift-off. It is now postponed for another day. Both astronauts - Ms Williams and Butch Wilmore - were seated in the new Boeing Starliner spacecraft, which was on its maiden mission. It was to lift off using the Atlas V rocket from Florida, USA, at 10 pm, but it was postponed minutes before liftoff.
This is the second scrub for the Boeing Starliner spaceship. Both astronauts are safe. The Atlas V rocket is also safe. As of now, NASA estimates it will take at least 24 hours to try again, but no new liftoff time has been announced.
A technical glitch was detected by the ground launch sequencer, the computer that monitors the health of the rocket. The astronauts will now exit the Starliner capsule and return to the crew quarters at the Kennedy Space Center.
An earlier attempt on May 7 was postponed hours before liftoff due to a technical glitch. A NASA statement said, "Boeing, United Launch Alliance, and NASA scrubbed the previous launch opportunity on May 7 [India time] due to a suspect oxygen relief valve on the Atlas V rocket's Centaur second stage. Since then, teams have removed and replaced the valve, and completed an assessment of Starliner's performance and redundancy after discovering a small helium leak in the spacecraft's service module."
This would have been the third space travel for the Indian-origin astronaut, who has already spent 322 days in space and held a record for the maximum number of hours of spacewalk by a woman, before being overtaken by Peggy Whitson.
This time, she could make history as the first woman to fly on a maiden crewed mission of a new space shuttle.
Ms Williams went on her first space voyage on December 9, 2006, which lasted until June 22, 2007. While on board, she established a world record for women by going on four spacewalks that added up to 29 hours and 17 minutes.
The 59-year-old had admitted to being a bit nervous but said she had no jitters about flying in a new spacecraft. She had helped design the Starliner, working with engineers from NASA and Boeing. "When I reach the International Space Station, it will be like going back home," she said.
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