Boeing ’s Starliner spacecraft at the outer space station during an uncrewed test flight in 2022.NASA / Boeing
The first launch of Boeing ’s Starliner space vehicle with astronautshas been pushed back yet again .
The Starliner ’s maiden crewed flight of stairs with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams was conjecture to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 6 , but two hours before launching , engineers spotted an issue with a pressure regularization valve on the Atlas V rocket ’s upper stage , motivate the commission teamto halt the countdown clock .
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft at the space station during an uncrewed test flight in 2022.NASA/Boeing
A revised docket for the slip to the International Space Station ( ISS ) had place May 17 for launching , but on Tuesday NASA announced thatit is now targeting May 21as it postulate to fill out additional testing .
NASA explained that after engineer successfully replaced the valve on Saturday , a “ small helium escape ” had been detected on the Starliner ’s service module , the source of which it has make out to trace .
“ NASA and Boeing are develop spacecraft examination and operational solutions to plow the issue,”the space bureau saidin a button on Tuesday . “ As a part of the testing , Boeing will bring the actuation system up to flight of steps pressurization just as it does prior to launch , and then leave the He organisation to ventilate naturally to validate existing data and tone flight rationale . ”
The Atlas V and Starliner are presently sheltered at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida . Wilmore and Williams , meanwhile , remain in preflight quarantine and traveled back to Houston on May 10 to spend time with their families while engineers prepare the rocket and spacecraft for next week ’s launching
During the highly anticipated mission , the two astronauts will spend about a hebdomad aboard the space place before returning to Earth in a parachute- and airbag - attend landing in the southwesterly U.S. After that , NASA will begin the final process of license Starliner and its systems for crewed rotary motion missions to the space place , alongside SpaceX ’s Crew Dragon ballistic capsule .
The Starliner ’s development has faced numerous wait over the years . Its first attempt to reach the space station in its first uncrewed trial flying in 2019 ended in failure when the vehicle was unable to enter the right orbit . The mission surfaced a good deal of issues with the capsule ’s software system that had to be addressed before it could vanish again . A second uncrewed trial run flight in 2022 managed to dock with the place station , but a number of young issues had to be adjudicate to get the Starliner ready for the first crew trajectory , which will hopefully launch next week .
