Boeing Starliner’s debut crewed flight delayed again to check helium leak

WASHINGTON : NASA and Boeing delayed the originate of Boeing’s Starliner crew pill again on Friday, giving them four more days to assess a helium leak sooner than attempting to originate the spacecraft’s first two astronauts into set, the set agency acknowledged Friday.

Starliner’s liftoff from Florida has been delayed various times in Might per chance and it used to be last scheduled for Might per chance 21.

Other than the helium leak, a technical downside with its Atlas 5 rocket had ended in an earlier delay. The program is various years on the aid of agenda and better than $1.5 billion over funds.

The most in fashion postponement will give more time “to finalize next steps that cope with a stable helium leak”, NASA acknowledged. The originate is now centered for no sooner than 3:09 p.m. EDT (1909 GMT) on Saturday, Might per chance 25.

Boeing has been setting up Starliner for better than a decade to set NASA with a second U.S. spacecraft in a position to ferrying astronauts to and from the Global Dwelling Online page. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon pill, built below the equal NASA program, first launched astronauts to position in 2020.

Starliner’s most in fashion mission, known as the Crewed Flight Test, is attributable to be the final test sooner than the spacecraft is certified by the U.S. set agency to cruise routine astronaut missions to the ISS. Boeing executed an uncrewed Starliner time out to the ISS in 2022 following years of technical and administration disorders.