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 go ahead with corrective measures. "

The leak is likely to delay its launch schedule, and is another setback for a program that has faced a series of problems. It is also announced that Vice President Mike Pence is expected to announce the crews of the first missions at a ceremony to be held in early August at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida

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

Under the program, the Boeing contract was worth up to $ 4.2 billion dollars; 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 Government Accountability says that company schedules "are aggressive" and that they "have set ambitious rather than realistic dates, only to delay them frequently."

SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Elon Musk, has also been facing challenges and is working to show NASA that it has solved a problem that has caused the explosion in the world. one of his unused Falcon 9 rockets in 2016.

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

NASA could end up with no way to get to the station, the orbiting laboratory which cost 100 billion dollars to NASA to build e and exploit.

In a statement, NASA said, "Flying safely has always taken the plunge. As our partners finalize their systems, we evaluate the remaining technical details and timelines for the flight tests with and without crew. "

The agency announced that it would announce an update of flight schedules next month." Said he discovered the thruster leak during the test. Emergency stop in June at the test facility of White Sands in New Mexico.

"The engines have been running successfully for the entire duration". Engine failure, an anomaly occurred that caused a propellant leak. "

The GAO report also worried about another problem with the abortion system, which could endanger the safety of the crew. "