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March Jul 24, 2018 – 5:50 AM
Washington
BOEING is facing a major setback with the spaceship it's designing to send NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
Authorities discovered a propellant leak during a trial of its emergency abortion system in June, the company confirmed.
In a statement to the Washington Post, Boeing said he conducted a thorough investigation with the help of our NASA. We are convinced that we have found the cause and that we are moving forward with corrective measures. "
The leak may 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 Mike Pence, is expected to announce the crews of the first missions at a ceremony that will be held in early August at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida
NASA sends astronauts to the space station.The "commercial program" would restore capacity of NASA to steal humans from the United States – an ability that was lost when the space shuttle was withdrawn in 2011.
Since then, the space agency has had to rely on Russia to steal 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 was $ 2.6 billion for the same number of flights
The first test launches of the program with crews on board were to take place this year. But a recent report from the Government Accountability Office said the company's schedules are "aggressive" and that Boeing "has set 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 she 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 embarrassment for NASA
Space agency relies on Boeing and SpaceX to fly astronauts, but GAO says delays could mean companies' spacecraft are not certified before Nasa's recent 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 laboratory in orbit that cost 100 billion Nasa to build and operate.
In a statement, NASA said: As our partners finalize their systems, we are evaluating the remaining technical details and timelines for the flight tests with and without crew. "
The agency announced that it would announce an update of test flight schedules next month." [19659003Boeingadeclareddiscoveredthecapitalfilterwhen"stoppinganemergencyinJune"installationofthetestWhiteSandsauNewMexico
"The engines ignited successfully and operated for the entire duration." a statement. "During the engine shutdown, an anomaly occurred that caused a leak of propellant. "
The GAO report noted another problem with the abandonment system, a problem that may have caused a threat to the safety of the crew." [19659003] Boeing said that he was correcting this problem and that it "would meet or exceed all of NASA's requirements". WP
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