WASHINGTON – Boeing said on April 17 that the next test flight of its commercial vehicle CST-100 Starliner would not take place until at least August, confirming a long-awaited long-term delay due to other launch schedules and Station missions. International Space.
In a statement, Boeing said the company and NASA are designing the Orbital Flight Test (OFT) 2 unmanned mission in August or September. This date is “supported by an opportunity to dock the space station and the availability of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V and Eastern Range missiles.”
Boeing was working on the launch of OFT-2 in late March or early April. However, in early March, NASA officials acknowledged that this was no longer likely due to delays in replacing aircraft units on the spacecraft that were damaged by an overvoltage during ground tests, as well as disruptions. current in the Houston area caused by a winter storm in February that interrupted software testing.
Neither NASA nor Boeing provided an updated launch date at that time, but noted that the mission is unlikely to be launched in either April or May. This was due to the Soyuz and Crew Dragon missions to the ISS scheduled for launch in April and the May launch of an Atlas 5 carrying a military spacecraft.
In a briefing on April 15 on the upcoming Crew-2 Crew Dragon mission, Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said another factor is the upcoming Dragon Cargo mission to the space station, scheduled for launch in early June. This spacecraft, along with the Crew-2 spacecraft, will occupy the only two docking ports that Starliner can use, which means it can only be launched after the departure of the Cargo Dragon in mid-July.
“Right now, the windows we’re looking at are August-September for OFT-2,” he said.
Boeing said in a statement that the Starliner flying OFT-2 will be “mission ready” in May, and the company “will evaluate options if a previous launch opportunity is available.” For now, however, there are no plans to delay the Dragon Cargo mission in June, in part because it carries solar panels NASA wants to get to the station as soon as possible to begin a much-anticipated upgrade of the station’s power supply.
Stich said at the briefing that NASA and Boeing will take advantage of the delay to conduct additional software tests. Software issues have been at the root of several major issues related to the original OFT flight in December 2019, disrupting the mission and preventing spacecraft from covering with the ISS.
“Boeing expects to complete all software testing in April and will support the agency’s post-test reviews as needed,” the company said, adding that it meets all recommendations made a year ago through an independent review, including those that do not. were considered mandatory before the next spacecraft flight.
Despite the delay of OFT-2, NASA and Boeing said they are still working on the first manned flight of the vehicle, the flight test of the crew, before the end of the year. Stich said at the briefing that the current target for that flight is the fourth quarter.
This would mean that the manned flight will not be more than four months after OFT-2, while previous programs suggest a gap of about half a year between them. Boeing said it is working to “allow as little time as possible between flights, while keeping an eye on crew safety,” including that the three NASA astronauts who will fly that mission perform tests in the Starliner, which will be launched on OFT-2.