The Boeing Starliner's first crewed voyage is delayed by Nasa.
Starliner's presentation ran mission, which will convey leader Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, to the Global Space Station will be a urgent second for Boeing's space unit.
Ankush Pandey
Reuters says: A NASA official said on Thursday that Boeing's first mission to send astronauts into space aboard its Starliner capsule has been postponed until at least the summer. According to people familiar with the situation, a plan to launch in April was scrapped due to last-minute tests and technical discussions.
NASA's space operations chief Kathy Lueders announced on Twitter that the Starliner mission, which had been scheduled for late April, will now launch "as teams assess readiness and complete verification work" for the spacecraft. She did not provide any additional information regarding the causes of the delay.
The first crewed mission of the Starliner, which will take pilot Suni Williams and commander Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station, will be pivotal for Boeing's space division. It is the spacecraft's final test flight before joining SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule as the second ride to orbit that has been approved by NASA.
In an interview with Reuters prior to the announcement of the delay, NASA's Commercial Crew Program director Steve Stich stated that the certification process for the spacecraft had taken "a little longer than we expected" and was "a whole lotta work."
A significant achievement would be a successful 10-day test mission with Starliner docked to the space station, a 250-mile-high orbital research laboratory. In the nascent market for private astronaut flights, Boeing has been unable to compete with SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk.
According to officials from the Boeing-Lockheed (LMT.N) joint venture, United Launch Alliance, Boeing, and NASA, finding a new launch date after April will be difficult due to heavy traffic at the space station over the following few months and a tight schedule for Starliner's launch provider.
The spacecraft underwent additional testing by Boeing and NASA, resulting in the delay.
Stich said that Boeing software engineers are testing Starliner's manual flight system as a backup in the event that the spacecraft's automated flight software fails.
The goal of that testing, according to a Boeing spokesperson, is "added redundancy in cases of emergency."
Stich stated that discussions regarding mission-critical lithium-ion batteries and the low likelihood that they will overheat while the spacecraft is docked at the station took longer than anticipated.
A person who attended the meetings said that the space station's chief safety officer and representatives from NASA's astronaut office disagreed with Boeing's plans to continue the mission at a recent pre-flight technical meeting, citing concerns about the batteries.
A person who requested anonymity to discuss preflight deliberations stated that those NASA officials eventually agreed with Boeing and others at the federal space agency that the chances of a battery failure that would put the crew in danger were low.
According to Stich, Boeing is also considering battery redesigns and the addition of shielding in the event that one overheat. He stated that at one point, SpaceX's spacecraft's batteries were redesigned. Since 2020, SpaceX has flown seven crewed missions for NASA.
"Obviously, they have the advantage of having a great deal of battery skill at Tesla(TSLA.O)," Stich expressed, alluding to the electric carmaker Musk leads.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Boeing stated that during tests, the Starliner's batteries have not been a problem.
"Boeing has stressed the battery cells beyond their intended limit in more than a dozen Starliner battery thermal runaway tests. "No problem has arisen," the company stated.
Stich said that during the meetings, there had been "a little disagreement" about how a battery cell failure could spread to other cells. He stated that no tests had been unsuccessful, but added that in the past, a cell might have "gotten a little out of balance" at times.
Boeing faces a growing list of tests and redesigns before embarking on the long-awaited operational phase of its NASA contract, and the Starliner battery issues and anticipated upgrades, which were not previously reported, would add to that list: six missions by astronauts in the coming years.
Under a contract worth $4.5 billion awarded in 2014, NASA has overseen the development of Starliner. In 2019, an initial uncrewed Starliner test flight was halted by 80 software errors. In 2022, the capsule successfully repeated that mission.
Stich stated that Boeing also intends to redesign a system that separates Starliner's main crew module from its service module. This system separates a trunk section containing thrusters from the spacecraft before it returns to Earth.
Government acquisition information shows NASA has consented to pay Boeing no less than $24.8 million for the update of that framework.
Additionally, Boeing decided last year to redesign Starliner's propulsion system valves to prevent them from closing before launch, resulting in a significant delay in 2021.
The intention of NASA and Boeing to redesign the valves for future missions sparked a dispute with the propulsion system supplier for Boeing. Last year, Reuters reported that Aerojet Rocketdyne (AJRD.N) refused to pay for the redesign and blamed Boeing for the issues.
According to an unidentified participant in the process, Boeing has eliminated Aerojet from the redesign process and is directly collaborating with Marotta, the valve supplier for Aerojet.
Marotta and Aerojet refused to comment. Boeing said, "we are working with Marotta on a valve overhaul."
