Boeing and the POT This Friday they postponed the launch of the ship’s first manned mission starliner, which now has a scheduled date to begin its trip to the International Space Station (ISS) next May 25.
The reason for the new date is to have more time to resolve “a small helium leak in the service module of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft”, as the US space agency explained this Friday.
The CFT mission (acronym for Crew Flight Test) was scheduled to take off on May 21 from a launch complex at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida (USA), with NASA astronauts Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita Williams on board.
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With what has been announced, it is the fourth postponement of this mission since last May 6 it was preparing to rise towards the ISS, however the takeoff was suspended after an anomaly was discovered in a liquid oxygen tank of the rocket. Atlas V booster, from the United Launch Alliance (ULA) firm.
According to NASA, pressure tests on the Starliner helium system carried out last Wednesday showed that “the leak in the flange is stable and would not represent a risk at that level during the flight,” However, the technicians want to continue carrying out tests to guarantee the performance of the ship.
Taking off on May 25, at 3:09 p.m. local time (7:09 p.m. GMT), the ship and crew will remain on the ISS for about a week before returning, with a planned landing in the southwest of the United States. . and with the support of a parachute system.
The success of the mission will allow Boeing to obtain the necessary certifications to operate as a second provider of cargo and crew transportation services to the ISS, as SpaceX already does, as a result of million-dollar contracts that both private firms have signed with NASA. .
