But what becomes of the Starliner capsule that was to join the ISS? – Numerama

After two postponements at the end of July and the beginning of August, Boeing has just announced that the launch of Starliner has been put on hold. The capsule will be detached from the Atlas V rocket that was to launch it, in order to undergo a battery of in-depth tests.

The launch of the Starliner capsule to the International Space Station was one of the expected events for the summer of 2021, in the aerospace field. Scheduled for July 30, however, it must have been canceled at the last minute. Since then, the capsule has still not been able to be launched and Boeing revealed this Friday, August 13 in A press release that the postponement might take some time.

The company indicates in fact that it will ” detach Starliner from the Atlas V rocket that was to launch it “. Boeing reveals that the valves of the propulsion system must be subject to ” further inspection », So that the teams can identify the technical problems that arise.

Black series for Boeing

Boeing is really having bad luck with Starliner. In December 2019, a similar mission had already failed. A few hours after the launch of the capsule aboard an Atlas V rocket, the teams announced that Starliner could not dock as planned to the International Space Station (ISS). The ship had burned ” more fuel than expected to maintain precise control ”, then wrote NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. A shift that made “Make it with the Space Station impossible “. After the second failure on July 30, Boeing initially postponed the flight to August 4. However, the teams had to cancel launch again, because of the problem encountered with the valves of the propulsion system.

If it is now necessary to send Starliner to another site for a thorough inspection, this will seriously alter Boeing’s schedule. ” Boeing, NASA and United Launch Alliance will have to find an alternate launch date when the valves issue is resolved », Specifies the press release. This umpteenth postponement is a serious setback for Boeing: the unmanned flight that Starliner was to perform was a key step for the manufacturer. NASA has indeed started to delegate crew transport missions between Earth and the ISS to private companies. SpaceX has proven that it is perfectly capable of doing this. The launch of Starliner was a key step in proving that Boeing was too. The postponement therefore prevents Boeing from taking the following steps: the routing of a training crew in the ISS, before finally being qualified to organize the first astronaut rotations.

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