An opportunity to come out of its successive crises. “Boeing” postpones its space flight for the second time

After preparing the Starliner space capsule, built by Boeing, for launch yesterday, the company postponed the launch a few hours ahead of schedule.
The capsule was awaiting launch yesterday from Cape Canaveral, Fla. To the International Space Station in a crucial test flight after a critical failure on its 2019 debut.
According to “Reuters”, the unmanned space mission is a preparation for a manned flight under strict control, which should be launched before the end of the year.
It is also a very important attempt for the giant American airline after successive crises that led to a drop in demand for its new planes, and after a safety scandal, following two crashes of two 737 Max planes, which have killed people, and damaged the financial position and engineering reputation of the company. .
According to plans, the capsule, loaded with supplies, was to be launched aboard an Atlas V rocket launched by the United Launch Alliance, a partnership scheme between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The operation was to be carried out at 1:20 p.m. EST (5:20 p.m. GMT) from the launch complex at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base.
And the US Administration of Aeronautics and Space “NASA” postponed a previous launch last Friday, after the space station derailed for a short time with seven crew members on board, in a crash caused by the untimely restart of the jet engines of a Russian unit. , which eventually docked at the station.
The Russian space agency blamed a software bug.
It comes after the world has witnessed in recent days a race between Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, and Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, on manned flights to leave the planet for a short time, in a new turning point for space tourism.
Bezos founded “Blue Origin” in 2000, with the aim of one day building floating space colonies, equipped with artificial gravity and allowing them to accommodate millions of people to work and live.
Jeff Bezos was accompanied on the flight by his brother, Mark, as well as pilot Wally Funk, 82, and Dutchman Olivier Daemen, 18, Blue Origin’s first customers, who became the oldest and youngest respectively. astronauts. already.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX will join the space race in September with a fully civilian orbital expedition aboard the Crew Dragon. SpaceX has also partnered with Axiom to transport visitors to the International Space Station.
Besides tourism, Blue Origin would like to replace SpaceX as the main special partner of the US space agency “NASA”, and sees the New Shepard, “a kind of starting point and a means of financing higher ambitions”, according to Laura Forczyk. . . .