Boeing faces a major setback with the spacecraft that he designs to fly NASA astronauts

The spacecraft that Boeing plans to use to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station undergoes a major setback when, during an emergency test he discovered a propellant leak.

In a statement to the Washington Post, Boeing stated that he "was conducting a thorough investigation with the help of our NASA and industry partners." We are confident that we have found the cause and we are going forward with corrective measures. "

The leak is likely to delay its launch schedule and is another setback for a program that has encountered a number of problems. The problem also comes from the fact that Vice President Pence is expected to announce the crews for the first missions during a ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in early August.

With SpaceX, Boeing is under contract with NASA space station. The "commercial program" would restore NASA's ability to steal humans from the United States – a capability that was lost when the space shuttle was withdrawn in 2011. Since then, the space agency has had to rely on the Russia to send its astronauts in space, at a cost of more than $ 80 million per seat

Under this program, the Boeing contract was worth up to $ 4.2 billion ; SpaceX volume rose to $ 2.6 billion for the same number of flights

The first test launches of the program with crews on board were expected to take place this year. But a recent report from the Government Accountability Office indicates that the company's schedules are "aggressive" and that Boeing "sets ambitious rather than realistic dates, only to delay them frequently."

SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Elon Musk, also faced challenges and is working to show NASA that it has corrected a problem that has caused the explosion of a of its Falcon 9 unmanned rockets in 2016.

In its report, the GAO said that other delays could disrupt access to "the space station – which would be a huge embarrbadment for NASA The space agency relies on Boeing and SpaceX to fly astronauts, but the GAO said the delays could mean that the companies' spacecraft are not certified before the latest NASA flights for its astronauts on Russian rockets, which would maintain an American presence on the station until early 2020.

Delays persist, NASA could end up with no way to get to the station, the orbiting laboratory that cost $ 100 billion rs to NASA to build and operate.

In a statement, NASA said: As our partners finalize their systems, we are evaluating the remaining technical details and schedules for both the crew and unmanned flight tests. "

The agency announced that it would announce an update of test flight schedules next month." Boeing said he discovered the thruster leak during the test From an emergency stop in June to the White Sands test facility in New Mexico

"the engines have been running successfully for the entire duration". 39 engine shutdown, an anomaly occurred that caused a propellant leak. "

The GAO reported another problem with the abandonment system, a problem that may have caused a threat to the safety of the crew. "

Boeing said that he was correcting this problem and that it" would meet or exceed all NASA requirements. "