An attempt to send Boeing's Starliner capsule to the International Space Station will not happen again until May 17 at the earliest after its scheduled launch was canceled Monday night due to a valve malfunction on the rocket. that will launch him into space.
The decision to delay the launch until at least next week was made Tuesday by NASA after it decided that an oxygen relief valve on the Atlas V rocket's Centaur second stage had to be replaced after it began to open and close quickly before Monday's launch.
A reliable workhorse, the rocket is manufactured by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. After years of delays in Boeing's Starliner program, the launch with two astronauts on board is considered crucial.
NASA officials said the crew was never in danger and the launch could have happened if it had been a satellite payload.
The decision to cancel the launch was made by NASA, Boeing and United Launch Alliance, marking another setback for the program.
Boeing's new Starliner capsule was scheduled to take off with a crew last summer, but a problem was discovered with its parachute system and the use of flammable tape on the craft, from which a mile was removed. That had been just the most recent of several delays before Monday.
This week's flight plan called for NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams to spend a minimum of eight days testing the docked Starliner before returning to Earth on May 15.
Boeing's capsule is intended to provide NASA with a second American vehicle to reach the space station, alongside SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule. A previous unmanned Starliner test flight docked at the station in May 2022, but the first flight in 2019 failed to reach it.
The stakes are high for Boeing, which received a $4.2 billion contract from NASA in 2014 to service the International Space Station, while its rival SpaceX of Hawthorne received a smaller $2.6 billion contract to also provide service, and has already sent eight crews to the station.
Boeing is counting on the Starliner to be a success, given the company's tarnished reputation after two crashes of its 737 Max 8 planes and a door plug that exploded on a 737 Max 9 flight this year over Oregon on its way to International Airport. of Ontario. The company also had to absorb $1.5 billion in Starliner cost overruns.
NASA selected the companies to provide American launch services after having to rely on the Russian program since the space shuttle program ended in 2011.
