Boeing cancels Starliner's first crewed mission minutes before launch

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) announced late Saturday that it has scrubbed the much-awaited launch of Boeing Starliner's first crewed flight, CNN reported.

Nasa's veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams were scheduled to finally blast off into space atop an Atlas V rocket at 12:25pm ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday.

However, an automatic hold triggered by the computer that launches the rocket stopped the countdown clock at three minutes and 50 seconds before lift off.

They were safely extracted from the capsule, and returned to crew quarters.

While the next available opportunity to lift off is Wednesday at 10:52am ET, Nasa revealed that mission teams have not yet determined whether they will attempt to launch the spacecraft then.

"I know it’s a little disappointing," Steve Stich, who heads Nasa's commercial crew program, said of the delay. 

"We were all excited, and Butch and Suni were excited to go fly. This is kind of the way spaceflight is … Every time you go to the pad for crewed flight or really any flight, you've got a chance to scrubbing."

The spacecraft has never flown with people on board.

This is why both Nasa and Boeing have repeatedly emphasised that they would proceed with caution and would not proceed with the mission until they ensured safety.