Boeing’s Starliner capsule on an Atlas V rocket is seen at Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on May 7, a day after its mission to the International Space Station was aborted due to a problem with a pressure control valve.
John Rau/AP
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John Rau/AP
Boeing’s Starliner capsule on an Atlas V rocket is seen at Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on May 7, a day after its mission to the International Space Station was aborted due to a problem with a pressure control valve.
John Rau/AP
The first crewed launch of Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft was again delayed until May 25, this time due to a helium leak in the service module.
NASA had set liftoff for May 21 after scrapping a May 6 launch, but the helium leak was discovered Wednesday. Although the agency said the leak in the craft’s propulsion system was stable and would not pose a risk during flight, “Boeing teams are working to develop operational procedures to ensure the system maintains sufficient performance and adequate redundancy during fields’.
While that work continues, NASA said its Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and the International Space Station program will review the data and procedures before making a final decision on whether to continue with the countdown.
The delay is the latest for the first crewed Starliner mission, which will carry NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Sunny” Williams to the International Space Station. The astronauts are due to spend about a week aboard the space station before landing by parachute and hovercraft in the US Southwest
If this mission is successful, NASA will begin the final process to certify the Starliner for manned rotational missions to the space station.
The delay comes roughly a decade after NASA awarded Boeing a more than $4 billion contract as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, which pays private companies to ferry astronauts to and from the space station after the space shuttle was retired in 2011 .
SpaceX, which also won a $2 billion contract under the CCP initiative, has flown eight crewed missions for NASA and four more private manned space flights since 2020.
History of design delays and issues
But the Starliner program has been plagued by delays and design problems for several years.
It failed to reach the space station on its first mission in 2019 after its on-board clock, which was set incorrectly, caused a computer to fire the capsule’s engines too early. The spacecraft successfully docked with the space station during its second test flight in 2022, despite the failure of some thrusters during launch.
Boeing then canceled the planned launch of the Starliner’s first crewed flight last year after company officials discovered that the adhesive tape used on the craft to wrap hundreds of yards of cables was flammable and the lines connecting the capsule to its three parachutes appeared weaker than expected. The launch was postponed indefinitely.
The May 6 launch was aborted due to a faulty oxygen safety valve, NASA said.
Wilmore and Williams remain in quarantine in Houston and will fly back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida closer to the new launch date, NASA said. The Starliner, which sits atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, remains in the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Boeing has faced intense scrutiny this year from the commercial aviation side of its business after a tailgate plug blew off an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff in January.
Whistleblowers have since come forward with details of alleged quality control lapses at the storied company, and the Federal Aviation Administration has said it is auditing Boeing manufacturing. The Department of Justice also announced it would open a criminal investigation into the Alaska Airlines incident.
NPR’s Joe Hernandez and Jeff Brumfiel contributed reporting.
