The space capsule will carry a two-person team to the International Space Station (ISS).

The launch countdown for Boeing’s new Starliner space capsule on its inaugural crewed test flight has been halted, postponing the mission for at least 24 hours.

The postponement was announced during a live NASA webcast on Saturday.

Earlier, launch forecasts had called for a 90 percent chance of favourable weather conditions.

However, less than four minutes prior to liftoff, a ground system computer triggered an automatic abort command that paused the countdown clock, according to mission officials.

The reason for the halt remains unclear.

.@NASA, @BoeingSpace , and @ulalaunch (United Launch Alliance) scrubbed today’s launch opportunity due to the computer ground launch sequencer not loading into the correct operational configuration after proceeding into terminal count. The ULA team is working to understand the… pic.twitter.com/pKkS6cdxYO

— NASA Space Operations (@NASASpaceOps) June 1, 2024

The CST-200 Starliner’s first voyage carrying two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to the International Space Station (ISS) has been highly anticipated and much-delayed as Boeing scrambles to gain a greater share of lucrative NASA business now dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Mission commander Wilmore had earlier given a short but rousing speech telling tens of thousands of people tuning into the live feed that “It’s a great day to be proud of your nation”.

A May 6 countdown was also halted just two hours before launch time over a faulty pressure valve on the Atlas upper stage, followed by weeks of further delays caused by other engineering problems, since resolved, on the Starliner itself.

A backup date is available for Sunday, but it is not yet known whether the spaceship will be ready to launch.

The first attempt by Boeing to send an uncrewed Starliner to the space station in 2019 failed due to software and engineering glitches. But a second try in 2022 succeeded, paving the way for efforts at getting the first crewed test mission off the ground.

Boeing’s struggles

Boeing, whose commercial plane operations are in disarray after several sequential crises, badly needs a win in space for its Starliner venture, a programme several years behind schedule with more than $1.5bn in cost overruns.

While Boeing has struggled, SpaceX has become a dependable taxi to orbit for NASA, which is backing a new generation of privately built spacecraft that can ferry astronauts to ISS, and in the future – under its ambitious Artemis program – to the moon and eventually Mars.

Starliner would compete head-to-head with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, which since 2020 has been NASA’s only vehicle for sending ISS crew to orbit from US soil.

The flight would mark the first crewed voyage to space using an Atlas rocket since the storied family of Atlas launch vehicles first sent astronauts, including John Glenn, on orbital flights for NASA’s Mercury programme in the 1960s.

Once launched, the capsule is expected to arrive at the space station after a flight of about 26 hours and dock with the orbiting research outpost some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

Plans call for the two astronauts to remain at the space station for about a week before riding the Starliner back to Earth for a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the US southwestern desert – a first for crewed NASA missions.

Depending on the outcome of the first crewed test flight, Starliner is booked to fly at least six more crewed missions to the space station for NASA.

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement on Saturday that seemed to contradict President Biden’s comments that would end the war in Gaza. 

Netanyahu’s office said that Israel’s conditions for ending the war – the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel – had not changed. 

In the second part of the statement posted on X, his office continued, “The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent cease-fire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter.”

In a speech from the White House on Friday, Biden presented what he called “a roadmap to an enduring cease-fire and the release of all hostages,” which he said came after intensive diplomacy carried out by a U.S. team with the leaders of Israel, Qatar, and Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries.

NETANYAHU INVITED TO ADDRESS CONGRESS AS BIDEN URGES HAMAS TO TAKE ISRAEL PEACE OFFER

Biden said the plan for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, a return of all the hostages to Israel and rebuilding the war-torn territory – without allowing Hamas to return to power in any format – was part of “a comprehensive new proposal” that Israel had already offered Hamas. 

While both Israel and Hamas responded hesitantly to the challenge laid out by President Biden to permanently end the war in Gaza and release the 125 people taken hostage by the Iranian-backed terror group during its brutal attack against Israel on October 7, critics were quick to jump on the plan’s shortcomings. 

Critics have already jumped on the Biden offer. Former Trump National Security Advisor and FDD senior adviser Richard Goldberg told Fox News Digital, “To be clear, the president has just repackaged a Hamas proposal as a U.S.-endorsed Israeli proposal, perhaps believing this would make an Israeli surrender to Hamas more palatable to Israelis.”

Palestinian Hamas terrorists are seen during a military show in the Bani Suheila district on July 20, 2017, in Gaza City, Gaza. A protester at Stanford University with a headband similar to those worn by Hamas members was seen on an image submitted to the FBI.  (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

On Thursday, the Israeli military announced that it had taken control of the so-called “Philadelphi Corridor,” an eight-mile-long strip of land that runs along the border between Gaza and Egypt. Israel said the move aimed to weaken Hamas by cutting it off from tunnels used to smuggle weapons and ammunition into the Palestinian enclave. It also served as another blow to the terror group’s governing capabilities, which have been steadily diminishing through the eight-month war, even as it consistently turns down proposals for a cease-fire. 

In a statement also on Saturday, Hamas said that it viewed the president’s plan positively, particularly “his call for a permanent cease-fire, the withdrawal of [Israeli] forces from Gaza Strip, reconstruction and an exchange of prisoners.”

COMBAT IN PART OF NORTH GAZA IS OVER, ISREALI MILITARY SAYS

The IDF says its “troops are continuing operations against terror targets in the area of Rafah.” IDF Spokesman’s Unit (IDF Spokesman’s Office)

Biden’s speech caught many in Israel off-guard. Given after the start of the Jewish sabbath, when many observant Israelis switch off phones and television sets, Israeli news commentators doubted that Netanyahu’s office had been made aware that the president was going to make such an address.

As he laid out his plan live on air, some wondered why the president had gone behind Netanyahu’s back to leak details of an offer to Hamas, which one day earlier had said it had rejected Israel’s proposal.

There was also confusion about whether Biden was really presenting the same plan that Netanyahu’s government had approved or whether it was a modified version. 

A spokesperson for the National Security Council (NSC) told Fox News Digital that it was the same plan. 

Thursday, October 12, 2023. Pictures of loved ones who have been captured by Hamas on display during a Defend Israeli Democracy UK press conference at Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel in London by Sharon Lifschitz and Noam Sagi, two London-based British Israelis whose parents are among the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. (Photo by Lucy North/PA Images via Getty Images) (Photo by Lucy North/PA Images via Getty Images)

In his speech, the president said the plan consisted of three phases: the first, which would take six weeks, would see a full and complete cease-fire, a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza and a release of a number of hostages. In exchange, Israel would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and allow Gaza’s civilians to return to their homes and neighborhoods in all of the Strip. 

Humanitarian assistance, he said, would surge “with 600 trucks carrying aid into Gaza every single day.”

Phase two would see the release of all remaining hostages, including male soldiers, after which the cease-fire would become permanent. A third phase would involve major reconstruction of Gaza, which has largely been destroyed by eight months of fighting. 

Family members of Americans who were taken hostage by Hamas during the terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, including (R-L) Ronen Neutra, Ruby Chen, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, Liz Naftali, Adi Alexander, Orna Neutra, and Yael Alexander talk to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House on December 13, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The families were invited to a private meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) ( Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid urged the government to consider the proposal, saying that it “cannot ignore President Biden’s important speech.”

“There is a deal on the table, and it needs to be made – I remind Netanyahu that he has a ‘safety net’ from us to make a deal, should Ben Gvir and Smotrich leave the government,” said Lapid, referring to hardline government ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Betzalel Smotrich, who are likely to reject any suggestion that Israel end the war without completely defeating Hamas. 

Fox News’ Peter Aitken contributed to this story.