NASA's Starliner Manned Flight Plan Postponed Again Due to Helium Leak

TapTechNews May 22nd news, NASA announced on Tuesday that the company's first manned flight plan originally scheduled for May 25 will be postponed again as engineers need more time to assess the helium leak problem in the propulsion system of the Starliner.

NASA stated in the announcement that the launch date will be postponed and the next possible window is still under discussion. The technical team has been meeting for two consecutive days to assess the flight plan, system performance and redundancy capabilities, the statement wrote. There is still work to be done in this regard and the next possible launch opportunity is still under discussion.

This postponement is due to the fact that before the Starliner was scheduled to launch from Florida on May 7, the mission personnel found a helium leak problem in the propulsion system, and there were also problems with the Atlas rocket of the United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

After years of delays, technical problems and two unmanned flight demonstrations (one failed in 2019 and the other was successful in 2022), astronauts Sunni Williams and Butch Wilmore will ride the Starliner to perform the first manned flight to the International Space Station.

The flight mission carried out by these two senior test pilots will be the last key test before the Starliner is certified by NASA that it can perform regular manned round-trip missions to the International Space Station. TapTechNews noted that SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft was developed under the same NASA project and has been the main manned vehicle for NASA to and from the International Space Station since 2021.