In this handout provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on board is seen illuminated by floodlights on the launch pad at the Launch Complex. Space Launch 41, in front of the NASA Boeing crew. Flight test on May 4, 2024 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Joel Kowsky | NASA | Brochure | fake images
boeing and NASA are moving forward with the launch of the company's Starliner capsule, which will carry American astronauts for the first time, despite a “stable” leak in the spacecraft's propulsion system.
“We are comfortable with the causes we have identified for this specific leak,” Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and manager of the company's commercial crew program, said during a news conference Friday.
“We know we can manage this [leak]so it's not really a flight safety issue,” Nappi added.
Boeing is now targeting June 1 for the first crewed launch of its spacecraft, with backup opportunities on June 2, 5 and 6.
The mission, known as the Starliner crew flight test, is intended to serve as the final major developmental test of the capsule by carrying a pair of NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station before flying routine missions. .
Sign up here to receive weekly editions of CNBC's Investing in Space newsletter.
The debut of the Starliner crew has been delayed for years, and SpaceX's competing Dragon capsule has been carrying astronauts for NASA regularly since 2020 under the agency's commercial crew program. To date, Boeing has consumed $1.5 billion in costs due to Starliner setbacks, in addition to nearly $5 billion in NASA development funds.
Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is seen before docking with the International Space Station on May 20, 2022 during the unmanned OFT-2 mission.
boeing
NASA and Boeing canceled a launch attempt on May 6 about two hours before liftoff due to a problem detected with the Atlas V rocket that will put Starliner into orbit. Atlas V is built and operated by United Launch Alliance, or ULA, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
During Friday's news conference, a ULA official noted that the rocket's problematic valve was replaced a week after the launch was postponed.
But after canceling the launch attempt, a “small” helium leak was identified with Starliner, prompting Boeing and NASA to begin new evaluations of the capsule and its safety for the mission. NASA Associate Administrator Ken Bowersox, one of the agency's top officials, explained to reporters Friday that “it has taken us a while to be ready to discuss” the helium leak issue.
“It's very complicated. There's so much going on. We really needed to work on it as a team,” Bowersox said.
After analysis, NASA and Boeing believe the source of the leak is a seal on one of the flanges of the spacecraft's helium propulsion system. In tests conducted after the May 6 postponement, NASA Commercial Crew Program Director Steve Stich said teams “have seen that the leak rate is not changing.”
Stich explained that the plan is to monitor the leak in the run-up to launch and, after arriving at the International Space Station, to reassess the leak rate.
“We do not expect the other [seals] filter, and I think that's the confidence we have,” Stich said.
Stich also emphasized that NASA has “flown vehicles with small helium leaks” before, including “a couple of cases” from missions flown by the space shuttle and SpaceX's Dragon.
NASA, Boeing and ULA will conduct another review on May 29 to review the leak. They plan to bring the rocket and capsule to the launch pad on May 30 for the June 1 attempt.
