Crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner planned to be final test to certify long-delayed vehicle for NASA flights to International Space Station.
Boeing and NASA have scheduled the new date of Saturday, 1 June for the first manned test flight of Boeing's Starliner into space after resolving two technical issues.
The organisations scrubbed the mission's earlier planned launch on 6 May after finding an issue with an oxygen relief valve in the Atlas V rocket intended to launch Starliner.
The valve, which had been rapidly opening and closing, was replaced during the week after the cancelled launch, but in the meantime engineers discovered a separate issue involving a helium leak in the Starliner vehicle itself.
Starliner has backup launch dates on 2 June, 5 June and 6 June.
The approximately one-week Starliner Crew Test Flight mission is intended as the vehicle's final test before certification by NASA that would allow it to be used for routine manned flights to the International Space Station under its Commercial Crew programme.
Boeing has spent $1.5 billion of its own funds in developing Starliner amidst repeated setbacks, on top of $5bn in NASA development funding.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule has been flying passengers for NASA regularly since 2020 under the programme.
Boeing plans to roll the rocket and capsule to the launch pad on 30 May for the 1 June launch attempt.
Any delay after 6 June could involve weeks or months of further delays as perishable items aboard the vessel would need to be replaced.
The launch could also come into conflict with other launch priorities of United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture that built the Atlas rocket, such as Amazon's first launch of its Kuiper satellites and ULA's second flight of its new Vulcan rocket intended for US military missions.
This Cyber News was published on www.silicon.co.uk. Publication date: Mon, 27 May 2024 13:43:04 +0000