Boeing (New York Stock Exchange: BA) and NASA called a press conference on Thursday, saying they would delay the launch of the Starliner spacecraft after additional problems with the capsule were discovered. The astronaut’s flight was scheduled for July 21 and was scheduled He carried a pair of NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
Two major safety issues caused the recent delay, the first being that the “soft ties” used on the suspension lines of the Starliner’s three main parachutes had a lower fault load limit than previously thought. Second, the use of “hundreds of feet” of tape is flammable and has drawbacks related to the spacecraft’s parachute system.
It’s possible, but I certainly don’t want to commit to any dates or time frames… We need to spend the next several days understanding what we need to do to solve these problems,” Boeing Starliner program manager and vice president Mark Nappi told reporters. ”
The July schedule was already a lag behind the previous April target.
In December 2019, Boeing’s first uncrewed Starliner test flight failed to reach orbit as planned and had to land earlier than planned.
Boeing (BA) is developing its Starliner spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, having won nearly $5 billion in contracts to build the capsule. Because of the delays and fixed-cost nature of the NASA contract, Boeing (BA) has already racked up approximately $833 million in losses over the past two years on the Starliner program.
Nappi remains optimistic and says it could take several weeks to investigate the design issues and come up with potential solutions. Boeing remains fully committed to the program and has no plans to back out of the Starliner program despite the skipped schedule.
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