Atlas V rocket, Starliner spacecraft return to ULA vertical integration facility

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — On Wednesday afternoon, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V, still carrying the Boeing Starliner Calypso, slowly rolled back to the Vertical Integration Facility.

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A faulty valve on that rocket’s upper stage scrubbed the first launch attempt of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test.

Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will now fly Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the International no earlier than Mar. 17, at 6:16 p.m.

Wilmore and Williams will spend about ten days testing the Starliner’s systems at the space station.

Read: ULA announces new Boeing Starliner launch date after scrub

The flight test will help NASA certify the Starliner for regular crew rotation missions to the ISS, such as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

It’s expected to take several days to replace that faulty valve on the liquid oxygen tank on the Atlas V’s Centaur upper stage.

“It is regulating the pressure like it’s supposed to be,” ULA CEO Tory Bruno said earlier this week. The crew was never in any danger. The concern is if it does that for too many cycles, you use up the fatigue life of the mechanical parts in the valve, and eventually they would fail.”

Boeing Starliner crewed launch scrubbed Monday night The Boeing Starliner launch was scrubbed Monday night. (WFTV)

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