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More lengthy delays could be in store for Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which is designed to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station and compete with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
Boeing had been working toward a late July launch of the first crewed Starliner test flight.
But “we did have two new issues that cropped up as part of our review process,” said Mark Nappi, Boeing’s vice president and program manager for the CST-100 Starliner, during a Thursday news briefing. “So, we spent the last week really looking at those in more detail.”
Ultimately, after consulting with Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun and NASA, the company decided to stand down from its July launch attempt to work through the problems.
One issue relates to the parachutes and a mechanism called a “soft link,” which had a lower threshold for failure than initially expected. The other relates to tape that is used to protect wire harnesses from scuffing, Nappi said. That tape was found to be flammable.
This is only the latest in a long string of delays for the Starliner program, which had been expected to begin flying astronauts years ago.
“Everybody is a bit disappointed,” Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said Thursday. “But you can see people ready to roll up their sleeves and figure out what the next steps are and this team will solve these problems.”
Despite a long history of delays, technology hang-ups and development issues, Boeing has repeatedly expressed its commitment to the Starliner program.
On Thursday, officials reiterated that they are not backing out of their commitment to the program. Boeing will also continue to bear the cost of the delays for the program.
The company previousy reported that it has incurred cost overruns to the tune of nearly $900 million. Nappi said that the problems discussed Thursday are “too new” to determine additional expenses.
A launch this year could still be feasible, but officials said they will not commit to a new launch date until they better understand the new issues.
Years of delays
In 2022, Starliner was sent on a second uncrewed test flight to orbit.
Problems with Starliner have cropped up during virtually every stage of its development program.
The issues that officials identified during that mission included hang-ups with a few of the spacecraft’s thrusters that did not power on as intended and software problems. None of those issues had a major impact on the test mission, however, and the vehicle was still able to complete its multiday journey to the space station and return safely back to Earth. Officials did, however, deem those problems serious enough to require fixes before allowing crew on board the vehicle.
Notably, the first attempt to send the Starliner on an uncrewed orbital test run in late 2019 had to be cut short — taking the vehicle directly back to land rather than to an ISS docking — after software issues sent the vehicle off course. It took nearly two years of troubleshooting before the Starliner was ready to return to the launchpad. Then, an issue with sticky valves further delayed the capsule’s return to flight.
While even the space agency initially expected that Boeing, a decades-long partner of NASA’s, would beat SpaceX to the launchpad, Boeing is now likely at least three years behind its upstart rival.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon launched its first astronaut mission in 2020 and has conducted routine flights with people on board since then.
But NASA wants at least two spacecraft capable of getting astronauts to the ISS and back in the hopes that, should either vehicle encounter a problem that would keep it grounded, there’s always a backup transport option.
NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams have been assigned to be the first astronauts to fly aboard Starliner. Boeing officials said the crew has been informed of the additional delays.
The space agency awarded Boeing a $4.2 billion contract in 2014 for Starliner’s development — nearly twice as much as the $2.6 billion that was given to SpaceX. Though Boeing has negotiated for some additional funds as it has experienced delays, the company has borne much of the burden of the cost overruns.