Boeing Sets Date for First Crewed Starliner Launch, but Parachute Tests Remain

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry “ Butch ” Wilmore could finally gimp a drive to the ISS aboard Boeing ’s CST-100 Starliner on July 21 , but tests of the capsule ’s chute system threaten to delay the beleaguered project even further .

The first crewed mission of Starliner and its third flight overall has a launch appointment , but you ’ll have to excuse my trepidation , given the labor ’s extremely regrettable history . The $ 4.3 billion Starliner is years behind agenda , and we ’ve already had toendure two schedule bumpsthis year alone ; the Boeing Crew Flight Test ( CFT ) was slated to take off in February , but that got force to March , and then again to July 21 , as NASA confirmed today during a press briefing .

Starliner is “ mostly ready for flight , ” Steve Stich , manager of NASA ’s Commercial Crew Program , told reporters . The main hang up , he allege , is certification work that still necessitate windup , including some ground tests link with the capsule ’s parachute system . dealings at the ISS is about to get meddlesome , Stich added , citing yet another reason for the hold . Axiom Space ’s planned secret mission to the ISS , plus an forthcoming payload mission , stand for that the “ late July timeframe is the right time to fly Starliner , ” he say .

Boeing’s Starliner crew ship docked to the Harmony module, May 23, 2022.

Boeing’s Starliner crew ship docked to the Harmony module, 22 January 2025.Photo: NASA

Those chute tests sound ominous — on the button the kind of affair that could further delay the CFT mission . of course , Stich did his honorable to minimise the tests , state the team has “ no issues or business organization ” with the parachute system and that it ’s simply a topic of seem at the data to ensure rubber . Mark Nappi , programme director for the Boeing Commercial Crew program , said he also feel surefooted about the parachute and he does n’t await any surprisal , he told reporter .

speak as a person who has spent meter with a parachute examination squad during their campaign : buckle up . It ’s going to take as long as it take in . The examination surround ( like weather and equipment ) does n’t always collaborate with your best laid plans.https://t.co/P00IuCQJ72

— Abhi Tripathi ( @SpaceAbhi)March 29 , 2023

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Assuming everything goes according to plan , land teams will start the fueling physical process some 40 days before launch . In terms of complete fixes , Nappi advert a logic erroneousness that emerged in a backup manual escape modal value during background simulations with the crew , which he state was round-eyed to resolve with a slight modification to the vehicle . That said , the team now wants to verify that this topic “ does n’t exist anywhere else and that it ’s an disjunct case . ”

Starliner is one of two space vehicle included in NASA ’s Commercial Crew Program , SpaceX ’s Crew Dragon being the other . Dragon has been in operation for three year , while Starliner is still in the process of being endorse . A steady current of technical issues has prevent the Boeing labor from taking off , but the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test 2 ( OFT-2 ) examination to the ISS went reasonably well , in what was an supporting sign .

The CFT missionary work will last a lower limit of eight days , both Stich and Nappi confirm , but extensions are possible should the situation admit and if further test are warranted . As for the existing ISS crew , Montalbano said the current plan is to return NASA astronaut Frank Rubio on a Russian Soyuz space vehicle on September 27 . Should the design stick , Rubio will have spent 371 straight days aboard the ISS , base a new record for a U.S. astronaut .

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Rubio was in the beginning supposed to hark back on the MS-22 Soyuz space vehicle , but the capsule ’s radiator out of the blue leaked out its coolant in December , rendering the fomite insecure for a crew . Theuncrewed MS-22 returned to Earth yesterday , withunverified reportssuggesting that internal temperatures rose to 122 degrees Fahrenheit ( 50 degrees Celsius ) inside the cabin .

When asked about this during today ’s briefing , Montalbano said he saw the report but that the technical team cater him with different info . He plans to discourse with his Russian colleague to better empathize what happened so that NASA can make decisions about future crew returns . He foretell to get back to reporters in about two to three weeks and mayhap even take for a briefing on the topic that would admit a “ surgeon ” to talk over potential health peril personate to spaceman when exposed to such utmost heat and humidness inside the abridgement . Until his team speaks with Roscosmos , however , discussions about the condition inside MS-22 remain speculation , Montalbano tote up .

chastisement : A previous interpretation of this clause incorrectly stated that the system of logic error happened during Orbital Flight Test 2 , when it in fact happened during ground simulations .

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