Boeing announced on Tuesday that the inaugural manned mission of its Starliner spacecraft to space has been postponed to May 21 due to concerns regarding the spacecraft’s propulsion system.
Originally scheduled for liftoff last week from Florida, the mission, which aimed to carry two NASA astronauts, faced delays due to technical issues with its Atlas 5 rocket. The postponement to May 17 was the latest setback for a program that has been plagued by delays and exceeded its budget by over $1.5 billion.
However, a new technical concern has arisen, this time related to the Starliner spacecraft itself, leading to another delay to at least next Tuesday, as stated by Boeing.
According to Boeing’s statement, the delay is attributed to a small helium leak detected in the spacecraft’s service module. Engineers have identified the leak to originate from a component in one of the propulsion system’s 28 control thrusters, crucial for maneuvering in Earth’s orbit.
Boeing has been working on Starliner for more than a decade with the aim of providing NASA with an additional U.S. spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, developed under the same NASA program, successfully launched humans into space in 2020.
The upcoming mission, termed the Crewed Flight Test, represents the final test phase before Starliner is certified by NASA for regular astronaut missions to the ISS. Boeing previously conducted an unmanned trip to the ISS in 2022 after encountering various technical and managerial challenges over the years.