The first manned spaceflight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, which has already been postponed several times, is scheduled to take off on 1any The American company and NASA announced on Friday that the month of June has passed without fixing the helium leak discovered in the spacecraft.
The launch of this mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which is extremely important for Boeing and has been long-awaited for years, has been postponed several times.
Liftoff was canceled at the last minute on May 6 – while the two astronauts making up the crew were already strapped onto the plane – due to a problem with the rocket's valve, which has now been fixed.
NASA then announced that it had detected a “small helium leak” in the spacecraft. Boeing explained that helium is used in the ship's propulsion system, and also said that it is working to resolve the problem with NASA.
But officials told reporters that Boeing and NASA had made the decision to lift off the spacecraft without repairing it.
“We can manage this leakage, even if the rate is 100 times greater,” said Steve Stich, a senior NASA official.
He explained that the problem affects only one of the 28 engines controlling the ship, adding that some flights have already been carried out with similar leaks.
Mark Nappi, a Boeing director, confirmed that fixing this leak would have been a “fairly complex” process and would have required dismantling the ship.
Instead of repairing it, NASA teams will monitor it closely several hours before the scheduled liftoff on 1any June at 12:25pm (4:25pm GMT) in Florida.
Boeing is playing a big role in this final test mission, which should allow it to prove its ship is safe before beginning regular missions to the International Space Station (ISS), four years behind SpaceX.
For NASA, which ordered this vehicle ten years ago, the risks are also high: having a second vehicle, in addition to the SpaceX vehicle, to transport American astronauts, would make it possible to better respond to “various emergency scenarios,” according to For example, if a problem occurs on a ship.
