Boeing Co.'s new astronaut capsule failed on Friday to climb high enough in orbit to reach the International Space Station, cutting short a critical unmanned test mission in the embattled aerospace giant's race to send humans to the outpost.
The CST-100 Starliner astronaut capsule was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, but an error in an automated timer prevented the craft from attaining the orbit that would have put it on track to rendezvous with the space station, NASA said.
Boeing could not immediately explain the error.