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Boeing’s second unmanned test flight of its Starliner spacecraft for NASA won’t launch on April 2 after all.
On Thursday, March 4, NASA and Boeing jointly announced their intention to postpone the launch of Starliner’s Orbital Flight Test-2 mission from takeoff in early April. The flight has already been delayed by two weeks from the March 25 target due to winter storms in Houston and the need to replace some avionics boxes. Now it looks like Starliner won’t be able to get to space until later in April.
“NASA is also evaluating the volume of verification and validation analysis required prior to the test flight and the timing of vehicles visiting the International Space Station,” the joint statement said.
Related: Photos of Boeing’s first Starliner flight test
April is already a busy time for the complex in orbit, with both a Russian Soyuz crew launch and NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 astronaut mission. As it stands, Boeing does not have the option to postpone April 2 to “later in April,” the statement added, but a new launch date has not yet been set.
OFT-2 will be a crucial milestone in the Starliner program as Boeing seeks to recover from a flawed mission in December 2019, which saw an unmanned launch fail to reach its space station destination. NASA identified 80 items that needed fixing before a new launch could take place, and Boeing spent several months fixing everything.
“The company has run dry runs ahead of an end-to-end mission rehearsal that will allow the operations team to train,” the NASA statement said, adding that the team will also be monitoring what is happening. during an entire simulated mission.
“In addition, power-up tests and checks of the OFT-2 vehicle, with new avionics boxes installed, have been successfully completed,” the update continued, adding that the refueling and “stacking” (or assembly with the rocket) of the spacecraft are ready to begin soon.
NASA plans to use the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner to transport most of America’s astronauts to the space station, largely replacing its reliance on the Russian Soyuz capsule that carried everyone to space between 2011 and 2020, after the withdrawal of the space shuttle program. . The new commercial crew spacecraft can accommodate four people each, instead of three seats in a Soyuz, allowing the station to pursue more science and business opportunities with larger future crews.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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