NASA, Boeing scrub Starliner's 1st crewed mission minutes before liftoff

NASA and Boeing scrubbed the launch of the first crewed mission of the Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, reported Xinhua.

The spacecraft was scheduled to launched on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket at 12:25 p.m. Eastern Time (1625 GMT) on Saturday in the United States from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the state of Florida.

A hold was given by ULA launch team about 3 minutes 50 seconds before the launch.

Teams have scrubbed the launch attempt due to an automatic hold of the ground launch sequencer, said NASA.

NASA has not announced the time for the next launch attempt yet.

The flight test will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to ISS for about a week to test the Starliner spacecraft and its subsystems before NASA certifies the transportation system for rotational missions to the orbiting laboratory for the agency's Commercial Crew Program, according to NASA.

The spacecraft was previously scheduled to launch on May 6, but the launch attempt was scrubbed due to technical issues.