Washington, DC: NASA announced a new target date of June 1 for the first crewed launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which will be piloted by Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams. The space agency reported that mission managers from NASA, Boeing, and United Launch Alliance (ULA) are working together to finalize the plans for the Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT) to the International Space Station (ISS).
The teams are now targeting a launch window at 12:25 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 1, with backup opportunities on June 2, June 5, and June 6. The Starliner’s inaugural mission to carry humans into space, initially set for May 7, was postponed due to a helium leak in its service module, causing successive delays.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is set to carry NASA astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore to the International Space Station (ISS) for a pivotal final test. This mission is essential for NASA to certify the Starliner for regular trips to and from the ISS. The spacecraft will be launched on an Atlas 5 rocket, operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The duo will remain docked at the orbiting laboratory for about two weeks to evaluate the new spacecraft and its systems before returning to Earth in the Western United States.
“There has been a great deal of exceptional analysis and testing over the last two weeks by the joint NASA, Boeing, and ULA teams to replace the Centaur Self Regulating Valve and troubleshoot the Starliner Service Module helium manifold leak,” said Steve Stich, manager of the NASA Commercial Crew Program.
“We will launch Butch and Suni on this test mission after the entire community has reviewed the teams’ progress and flight rationale at the upcoming Delta Agency Flight Test Readiness Review,” he said.
Both Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore continue practicing in Starliner simulators and the crew that remains quarantined will fly back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida closer to the new launch date, the space agency said.
Mission managers of the Boeing Starliner’s Crewed Test Flight (CFT) called off the mission on May 7, just two hours before the scheduled launch due to a valve glitch in the Atlas 5 rocket’s upper stage. Boeing said in its statement that the valve was successfully replaced on May 11 and tested to confirm it was working properly.
Later on May 14, NASA announced that the CFT mission scheduled for May 17 has been pushed to no later than May 21 due to what it described as a “small helium leak” in the spacecraft’s service module.
On May 17 the space agency said that the launch was further pushed back to May 25. The flight marking Boeing’s first Starliner spacecraft mission with a human crew, is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which is working with the US aerospace industry through a public-private partnership to launch astronauts on American rockets and spacecraft from US soil.
