Boeing Starliner's historic crewed launch postponed indefinitely again

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Saturday's target date for the highly anticipated Boeing Starliner's crewed maiden voyage is now off the table, and NASA did not immediately set a new date.

NASA said in a statement that the team met for two consecutive days to evaluate flight principles, system performance and redundancy, adding that work remains in those areas and discussions are ongoing about the next possible launch.

The update comes this month, after several previous delays, and a week after the Starliner mission team reported a small helium leak in the spacecraft's service module. They determined that there was a leak in a component called the flange of the thruster of the single reaction control system. There, helium is used to enable thruster ignition.

Just a few days ago, NASA announced that the team was aiming to launch no earlier than May 25, saying the additional time before launch would give experts more time to assess the problem. , testing up to that point had shown that the leak did not pose a threat to the mission.

Pressure tests conducted on the spacecraft's helium system on May 15 showed that the flange leak was stable and did not pose a risk at that level during flight, the space agency said in a news release Friday. stated in the release. The test also showed that the rest of the thruster system was effectively sealed throughout the service module. Boeing teams are working to develop operating procedures to ensure the system maintains sufficient performance capability and appropriate redundancy during flight.

The mission, called “Crew Flight Test,” could be the last major milestone before NASA determines Boeing's spacecraft is ready for routine operations as part of the federal agency's Commercial Crew Program.

The historic manned flight was aborted about two hours after Starliner's launch on May 6 because of a problem with a valve in the second stage, or top, of the Atlas V rocket heading into space.

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who will be spending a week aboard the International Space Station, were in quarantine before the flight but returned to Houston on May 10 to be with their families, Boeing announced last week.

In its latest statement, NASA said it would share more details once its future direction is clearer.

The crew flight test marks the culmination of Boeing's decade-long effort to develop a spacecraft suitable for ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station under NASA's commercial program.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a press conference earlier this month that the launch would be the sixth first flight of a manned spacecraft in U.S. history.

It started with Mercury, then Gemini, then Apollo, then Space Shuttle, then (SpaceX's) Dragon and now Starliner, he said.

Boeing designed Starliner to compete with SpaceX's proven Crew Dragon spacecraft and expand America's options for transporting astronauts to the space station.

Williams will also make history as the first woman to embark on such a mission on board the ship.

Development stalls, test flight problems and other costly setbacks have slowed Starliner's path to the launch pad. Meanwhile, SpaceX, Boeing's rival in NASA's commercial crew program, has become the space agency's go-to transport for astronauts.

Williams and Wilmore were already seated in the Starliner spacecraft on May 6 when engineers discovered the problem and aborted the launch.

The United Launch Alliance team, which manufactures the Atlas V rocket, discovered that the pressure regulator valve in the liquid oxygen tank needed to be replaced. The valve has since been replaced, but the latest issue with a helium leak in the Boeing spacecraft atop the rocket has caused further delays.

If the spacecraft launches as planned next week, the spacecraft and the astronauts inside will separate from the Atlas V rocket once Starliner begins firing its engines and reaches orbit. The spacecraft will likely make its way to the space station gradually over 24 hours.

Williams and Wilmore will join the seven astronauts and cosmonauts already on board and spend about a week at the orbiting laboratory while Starliner is parked outside.

The history-making crew will then return home aboard the same Starliner capsule and land by parachute at one of several designated locations in the southwestern United States.

CNN's Jackie Wattles and Ashley Strickland contributed to this story.

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