(Belga) The Boeing space capsule, Starliner, must try again in mid-May to reach the International Space Station, NASA and the company, which has accumulated setbacks in this competing SpaceX program, confirmed on Tuesday.
This crucial test, without passengers on board, should allow NASA to have a second means of transport to take its astronauts to the Space Station (ISS). Take-off from Florida is now scheduled for May 19. In case of impediment that day (for example because of the weather), a possibility of launching exists the next day. This test flight had already been attempted in 2019, but then came close to disaster due to a software problem. The capsule must have returned to Earth prematurely, without reaching the ISS. The test was then to be retried in August 2021, but then had to be canceled at the very last moment due to a problem with valves remaining closed during the final checks on the launch pad. Boeing determined that this malfunction was caused by a moisture problem which, interacting with oxidant present in the system, had formed nitric acid which contributed to blocking the valves. “These eight months have been difficult,” Steve Stich, in charge of NASA’s manned commercial program, conceded at a press conference on Tuesday. “We have solved the problem (…) and we are heading for take-off”, he however welcomed. This test flight must prove that the capsule is safe. Boeing is then still aiming for the end of 2022 to carry out a final test, this time taking a crew on board, Boeing’s Mark Nappi said on Tuesday. SpaceX for its part has already taken more than twenty people to the ISS thanks to its own capsule, Dragon. (Belga)