NASA delays next crew launch to buy more time at the space station for Boeing’s troubled capsule

NASA is delaying its subsequent astronaut launch to purchase extra time on the Worldwide Area Station for Boeing’s troubled new crew capsule.

The space agency mentioned Tuesday it is bumping SpaceX’s four-person flight from this month to subsequent. It is now focused for Sept. 24 on the earliest. Officers mentioned that can give them extra time to research thruster and leak problems that hit Boeing’s Starliner capsule after its June liftoff, its first with a crew on board.

Tuesday marked the two-month point on the space station for Starliner’s check pilots, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who ought to have been again by mid-June. NASA is weighing all its choices for returning the 2 veteran astronauts, together with a experience dwelling in a SpaceX capsule.

“NASA and Boeing proceed to judge the spacecraft’s readiness, and no selections have been made concerning Starliner’s return,” NASA mentioned in an announcement. Additional particulars have been anticipated at a information convention set for Wednesday.

Solely two docking ports on the space station can accommodate U.S. astronaut capsules and, proper now, each are occupied. So one will have to be vacated earlier than the subsequent SpaceX crew can arrive. Russia has its personal parking locations for its Soyuz capsules.

The most recent setback means the 4 astronauts who flew up with SpaceX in March now additionally face an extended mission than deliberate.

Over the previous a number of weeks, Boeing has carried out thruster check firings on the bottom in addition to in space to higher perceive why 5 thrusters failed forward of Starliner’s June 6 arrival on the space station. All however one got here again on-line. Helium leaks within the capsule’s propulsion system additionally cropped up.

Citing the testing, the corporate late final week mentioned, “Boeing stays assured within the Starliner spacecraft and its means to return safely with crew.”

Boeing and SpaceX topped NASA’s record for astronaut taxi service to and from the space station, after the shuttles retired in 2011. NASA signed contracts value billions with each firms so as to have a backup in case one among them acquired sidelined by an accident.

SpaceX launched its first crew in 2020; the upcoming flight shall be its tenth astronaut flight for NASA. It is also despatched a couple of personal crews into orbit.

Boeing has needed to overcome a number of Starliner issues over time. The corporate needed to launch an empty Starliner twice earlier than committing to a crew, repeating the preliminary flight check due to dangerous software program and different points. The delays have price the corporate greater than $1 billion.

© 2024 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.