Starliner launch date delayed again

Despite the complicated situation Boeing’s commercial aviation arm finds itself in, the company is expected to face another test when its space capsule, the CST-100 Starliner, eventually launches its first crewed mission.

Currently, the launch is scheduled for May 21, but if you’re planning to watch, keep in mind that the launch date has already been delayed twice this month alone.

Whenever that happens, Starliner’s final test flight will send two veteran astronauts, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, into orbit where they will connect to the International Space Station. The plan is to stay aboard the ISS for about a week before returning to Earth, the other crucial part of the test.

“We feel very safe and very comfortable when this spacecraft is flying,” Williams said according to a NASA statement released earlier this month. “This is where we’re supposed to be.”

But why did he feel the need to specify that?

Well, that’s because Boeing’s space wing has been experiencing its own problems for some time now.

It’s been about a decade since NASA awarded Boeing a more than $4 billion contract to entice private companies to step in and transport astronauts to and from the ISS, following the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011.

NASA also awarded SpaceX a more than $2 billion contract for the Commercial Crew project just as the Boeing deal was announced. The company conducted its first crewed test launch in November 2020.

Things haven’t moved as quickly or as easily for Boeing. The first unmanned test carried out in 2019 was launched into orbit but was unable to reach the ISS due to a clock malfunction. Then the 2022 unmanned test flight to the ISS went smoothly, although some thrusters failed during that launch.

The crewed test flight was the next big step, delayed for over a year now.

Originally scheduled for July 2023, the first planned flight was abruptly canceled last June after engineers discovered a number of problems, including that the company had used hundreds of feet of flammable duct tape on the capsule and discovered problems with Starliner’s parachute system. . “Safety is always our top priority and that’s what’s driving this decision,” Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and head of the Commercial Crew program, said of the decision to delay the test last year.

Arguably those words were more comforting at the time, before the January incident on Alaska Airlines, when a door jam exploded minutes after takeoff.

Since then, whistleblowers say the airline’s quality control is lacking. Additionally, the Federal Aviation Administration launched an audit of Boeing production and the US Department of Justice announced the opening of a criminal investigation into the Alaska Airlines incident.

In other words, whatever the stakes were in the Starliner’s first crewed test flight last year, they are now exponentially higher.

And the problems keep cropping up.

“We are now ready to conduct the test flight,” Nappa said ahead of the planned May 7 launch.

They came close then, but canceled the launch at the last minute due to a faulty oxygen relief valve on the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket beneath the capsule, according to launch officials. NASA.

Then they canceled the May 17 test days before departure, this time due to a problem with the Starliner’s propulsion system. Specifically, they discovered a helium leak that needs to be fixed.

It’s mind-boggling to realize that SpaceX has flown nine crewed NASA missions and four private missions. Meanwhile, Boeing is years behind schedule and more than $1.5 billion over budget.

That said, the crewed Starliner launch window is 4:43 a.m. EST, May 21. And who knows, it might actually happen this time. Maybe.