NASA photo showing the Boeing Starliner space capsule on July 17, 2021 in Cape Canaveral, Flaw. (NASA / Boing NASA / Boeing / John Grant)
Boeing’s Fighting Starliner space capsule will face further delays on Thursday after the company said it was working to fix problems with the oxidation valves in the propulsion system.
The last launch of the spacecraft to the International Space Station, scheduled for August 4, was canceled due to problems with the propulsion system, and it is not yet clear when the next test flight will be scheduled.
“Over the past two days, our team has taken the time to safely access and test the affected valves,” said John Wolmer, vice president and general manager of the Starliner program.
The new launch date will be announced once the spacecraft is ready, the company said in a statement.
The incident is the latest for Boeing since it signed a deal with NASA to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit.
After completing its own space shuttle program in 2011, NASA acquired Boeing and SpaceX services, thus eliminating the need for Russian rockets to reach ISS.
Before Boeing can successfully carry astronauts, it is important for the ISS to successfully complete the drone flight.
SpaceX has already made three manned missions, bringing less than a dozen astronauts on board its Crew Dragon spacecraft, including the Frenchman Thomas Pesket.
For its part, Boeing is lagging behind. In December 2019, during the first test flight, a software problem caused a problem with the thrusters.
The Starliner did not have enough fuel to reach the ISS and had to return to Earth in advance. Subsequently, an investigation revealed that the capsule experienced a serious air disorder as soon as it entered the atmosphere.
NASA described the mission as a “high visibility close call”, a rare name assigned to aircraft approaching disaster.
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