The problematic launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has been delayed again

The first crewed launch of Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft has been pushed back again to May 25, this time due to a helium leak in the service module.

NASA had scheduled the launch for May 21 after canceling a May 6 launch, but the helium leak was discovered on Wednesday. While the agency said the leak in the plane’s engine 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 flight.” keeps.”

While this work is underway, NASA said its Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and the International Space Station Program will review data and procedures before making a final decision on whether to proceed with a countdown.

The delay is the latest for the Starliner’s first crewed mission, which will carry NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams to the International Space Station. The astronauts will spend about a week aboard the space station before landing in the southwestern United States using a parachute and airbags

If this mission is successful, NASA will begin the final process of certifying Starliner for crewed rotational missions to the space station.

The delay comes about a decade after NASA awarded Boeing a more than $4 billion contract under the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, which pays private companies to ferry astronauts to and from the space station after the Space Shuttle was decommissioned in 2011.

SpaceX, which also received a $2 billion contract under the CCP initiative, has flown eight crewed missions for NASA and an additional four private, crewed spaceflights since 2020.

A tale of delays and design problems

But the Starliner program has been plagued with delays and design problems for several years.

On its first mission in 2019, it failed to reach the space station after an incorrectly set onboard clock caused a computer to fire the capsule’s engines too early. The spacecraft successfully docked with the space station on its second test flight in 2022, although some engines failed during launch.

Boeing then scrapped the planned launch of the Starliner’s first manned flight last year after company officials discovered that the tape used to wrap hundreds of meters of cable was flammable and that the connecting cables between the capsule and the three parachutes were weak his seemed expected. The start was delayed indefinitely.

The May 6 launch was aborted because of a defective oxygen relief valve, NASA said.

Wilmore and Williams will remain quarantined in Houston and will fly back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida shortly before 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 Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Boeing has come under intense commercial aviation scrutiny this year after a rear door plug blew through on an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff in January.

Whistleblowers have since come forward detailing alleged quality control deficiencies at the venerable company, and the Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating Boeing’s production. The Justice Department also announced it would open a criminal investigation into the Alaska Airlines incident.

NPR’s Joe Hernandez and Geoff Brumfall contributed reporting.