Boeing space flight postponed after space station incident

“We want to make sure that the space station is in a stable configuration and ready for the arrival of Starliner,” said Steve Stich, program director for NASA’s commercial crew program, which oversees the Starliner effort. The Boeing capsule could be launched on August 3, he said.

Boeing said the company was ready for the Starliner launch “when the time comes”.

Officials decided to postpone the launch of the Boeing vehicle after a flight control team noticed at 12:45 p.m. ET Thursday that the Russian spacecraft, called Nauka, had inadvertently fired its thrusters while docked at the space station, causing the space station to deviate from its intended orientation in space.

The unmanned Nauka spacecraft had connected to the space station Thursday morning. The 43-foot-long, 23-ton module is intended to serve in part as a new science facility and docking port, according to a NASA website.

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For about an hour on Thursday, staff supporting the Nauka’s docking to the space station worked to return the facility to normal orientation in space, NASA executives said in a briefing after the Postponement of the Starliner flight.

Communications between the facility and NASA failed at one point for four minutes and again for seven minutes, according to Joel Montalbano, the agency’s director for the space station program. He said teams were able to redirect him by firing compensating thrusters, he said.

The station’s crew did not face any immediate danger during the operation, Montalbano said.

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Write to Micah Maidenberg at [email protected]