Boeing Starliner: They postpone their first manned mission to May 17

The first crewed launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft toward the International Space Station (ISS) was postponed to May 17 after engineers reported that a faulty valve on the rocket needed to be replaced for the high-risk mission, NASA said Tuesday.

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The test has already faced years of delays and comes at a challenging time for Boeing, which is embroiled in a safety crisis in its commercial aviation segment.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were due to take off from the Cape Canaveral base in Florida, were already in their seats preparing for takeoff when the cancellation occurred.

Crews on the ground heard the hum of a valve that regulates the pressure of liquid oxygen on the Atlas V rocket, intended to propel the Starliner into orbit.

United Launch Alliance (ULA), the Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture responsible for the rocket, initially said the launch would be delayed until at least May 10.

But further analysis revealed that the valve had suffered too much wear and required replacement. The rocket will be transported back to its hangar for repair.

The flight test “is now scheduled to launch no earlier than 6:16 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 17,” NASA said on its blog.

Wilmore and Williams will remain in quarantine at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, he added.

The US space agency is confident in the success of the Starliner, as it hopes to have a second commercial vehicle to transport crews to the ISS.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX already achieved the feat with its Dragon capsule in 2020, ending a nearly decade-long dependence on Russian rockets after the end of the space shuttle program.

Source: Elcomercio

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