Boeing Starliner will not perform next test flight until 2022

NASA and Boeing have finally revealed the next possible date for an unmanned test launch of the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station: the first half of 2022.

Starliner’s upcoming Orbital Flight Test-2 mission has been in the air for August, when a technical problem involving 13 oxidant valves in the propulsion system of the spacecraft did not open during the countdown, forcing the space agency and company officials to cancel their plans. The valves connect to the Starliner’s thrusters, which control the abort and maneuver functions in orbit.

At that time, NASA said the test would take place after the launch of the Lucy asteroid space probe, which is scheduled to go into space on Saturday, October 16. But Boeing was not at all sure it could be achieved this year.

In the end, it looks like Boeing was right. NASA and Boeing will analyze the potential flight opportunities for next year alongside United Launch Alliance, maker of the Atlas V rocket that will launch the Starliner, and the Eastern chain, the Space Force entity in charge of East Coast launches.

“The potential launch windows for OFT-2 continue to be assessed by NASA, Boeing, United Launch Alliance and Eastern Range,” NASA officials wrote in a statement. blog update. “The team is currently working on opportunities in the first half of 2022 pending the preparation of the material, the rocket manifesto and the availability of the space station.”

NASA said agency and Boeing officials continued to make progress in investigating the oxidation valve issue. Boeing found that tThe most likely cause seems to be related to the interactions between oxidants and humidity.

“Boeing has demonstrated its success in the functionality of the valves using localized heating and electrical charging techniques,” NASA explained. “The troubleshooting on the platform, at the launch complex, and inside the Starliner production facility at Kennedy Space Center resulted in movement of all of the original stuck valves except one. This valve was not intentionally moved to preserve forensics for direct root cause analysis. “

Over the next few weeks, Boeing will conduct spacecraft and component tests to further analyze the possible factors that contributed to the valve failure and determine corrective actions.. Additionally, it will remove three valves from the spacecraft for further inspection.

The company has identified different avenues to take, each based on the results of its tests, to prevent the problem from recurring. These solutions include a minor refurbishment of the current service module to use another module already in production, according to the NASA update.

The Starliner, part of a NASA program to transport astronauts to the ISS, performed only one other unmanned test flight in what appears to be a very long time ago. In 2019, it managed to reach space but did not reach the ISS due to a software failure.

Currently, NASA has only two options available to send astronauts to the ISS, the Russian spacecraft, and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.