The upcoming test drive of the Boeing Starliner, the spacecraft produced by Boeing for NASA’s participation in the Commercial Crew Program, has been postponed again.
Due to some technical glitches encountered in the spacecraft, it was announced that the test drive would take place in 2022.
Test flight delayed to 2022
According to NASA’s statement, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft encountered an oxidizing isolation valve problem. The agency has officially announced that it has delayed the second test flight until next year as work continues to resolve the issue. Two vehicles designed to take passengers to and from the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program are Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
NASA asked both companies to launch an uncrewed test flight first and then a crewed test flight. Starliner has only operated one uncrewed flight so far, but it also encountered software problems before reaching the International Space Station. Steve Stitch, director of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said the problem is a complex issue that requires a lot of engineering work, affecting areas of the spacecraft that are not easy to access. “The team is currently working on hardware readiness, rocket manifest and space station availability pending opportunities in the first half of 2022,” the officials said.
In addition, NASA announced earlier this week that it had assigned two astronauts on the upcoming Starliner flights to the SpaceX flight. Astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada will take part in SpaceX’s fifth manned mission, which will take place in the fall of 2022.
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