Washington, June 1 (Sputnik).- The helium leak is still active in the Boeing company’s Starliner ship, but it remains within the accepted safety margins and will not delay the first manned flight scheduled for Saturday, officials from the NASA at a press conference.
“We have 3,000 PSI (pounds per square inch of pressure) in a helium tank and a (safety) margin of 500 PSI (and) this leak rate is a small percentage of that,” explained the director of the Commercial Crew Program of NASA, Steve Stich, on Friday.
He added that the ship would lose half a pound of helium (2.2 kilos) and has 50 pounds on board (22.6 kilos).
NASA canceled a previous launch attempt on May 6 and eventually replaced a faulty valve, at which point the helium leak in the Starliner service module was discovered, the US space agency and Boeing officials said.
The launch of the Starliner with American astronauts Barry “Butch” Gilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams is scheduled for Saturday, June 1 at 16:25 GMT and the spacecraft will dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday at 17:50 GMT.
The astronauts will return to Earth on the Starliner on June 10. (Sputnik)
