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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – Boeing's new space capsule for astronauts is experiencing more and more launch delays.
The capsule Starliner was to debut this month, after a series of postponements. But the first test flight is now complete until August. And the second test flight, with the astronauts, will take place only later in the year.
NASA announced the revised range on Wednesday. At the same time, officials said the Starliner's first crew would remain at the International Space Station longer than the initial few weeks. The duration of the mission will be decided later.
SpaceX, NASA's other commercial crew supplier, successfully flew its new unmanned Dragon capsule to the International Space Station last month. The first flight with astronauts could take place as early as this summer, but the schedule is being revised.
Boeing said that the last important milestones had been reached and that the capsule was almost complete. But scheduling conflicts with the launch of the Air Force earlier this summer helped push off Starliner's debut in August.
The Starliner will fly aboard the United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, the same type of rocket needed for the Air Force's critical mission at the end of June, from the same platform. .
While the first SpaceX astronauts will be visiting the space station for a few weeks at most, the Starliner's three-person crew will move into the complex in orbit for an extended period. The typical station stay is about six months.
NASA wants to reduce its dependence on expensive Russian Soyuz capsules as soon as possible. The Boeing test flight will also serve as a taxi mission for residents of the station. NASA astronauts have been stuck in Russian rockets since the end of the space shuttle program.
SpaceX Dragons and Boeing Starliners will resend their human launches in Florida after eight years of interruption. NASA has contracted the two companies to take over the ferry flights from the space station, so they can focus on getting astronauts to the moon and possibly to Mars.
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The Associated Press Science & Science Department is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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