Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

A NASA official said Thursday that the first manned flight test of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft would be postponed until at least this summer. Last-minute tests and technical arguments have overruled Starline's planned launch in April, people familiar with the matter said.

Kathy Lueders, NASA's director of space operations, tweeted on social media that the first manned mission of the Starline spacecraft was scheduled to launch in late April this year, but now it will not be until SpaceX completes its private astronaut mission as early as May. "The team is assessing the readiness of the spacecraft and completing verification work," she said. Luders did not add a reason for the delay.

The first manned flight test of the Starline spacecraft will take commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams to the International Space Station, which is crucial for Boeing's space division. The manned mission will be Starline's last test flight before it gets NASA certification.

Steve Stich, NASA's director of commercial astronaut programs, said in an interview before announcing the launch delay that the spacecraft certification process was "a little longer than we expected" and that "there's a lot of work to be done."

If Starline successfully docks with the International Space Station in Earth orbit and completes its 10-day test mission, it will be a critical milestone for Boeing. Boeing has struggled to compete with Elon Musk-led SpaceX in the emerging market for commercial astronaut flight.

Boeing and NASA officials said it would be difficult to find a suitable launch date after April because of the busy schedule of spacecraft entering and leaving the International Space Station in the coming months and the tight schedule of the United launch Alliance, which is responsible for launching the Starline spacecraft.

The delay was due to additional tests conducted by Boeing and NASA on several areas of the spacecraft.

Stitch said boeing software engineers are testing starline's manual flight control system to prevent failures in the spacecraft's automatic flight control software.

A Boeing spokesman said the tests focused on "adding redundancy in an emergency."

Stitch said Boeing and NASA conducted a technical demonstration of the mission's critical lithium-ion battery, especially the possibility that the battery would overheat during docking with the International Space Station, which took longer than expected.

At a recent preflight technical meeting with Boeing and NASA officials, the ISS chief safety officer and representatives of NASA's astronaut office disagreed with Boeing's decision to continue the mission as planned, citing battery concerns, according to a person who attended the meeting.

But an anonymous source said NASA officials ultimately agreed with Boeing and others at NASA that the chances of a battery failure endangering the crew were low.

Stitch said Boeing is also considering redesigning the batteries and plans to add shielding if the batteries overheat. SpaceX has flown seven manned missions for NASA since 2020 and has redesigned spacecraft batteries, he said.

Stitch added,"Certainly Tesla (led by Musk) has extensive battery expertise. "

Boeing said in a statement Wednesday that the Starline spacecraft's batteries had no problems during testing.

Boeing said it had conducted more than a dozen battery overheat runaway tests on the Starline spacecraft, stressing that the batteries exceeded expected limits. "No problems occurred," the company said. "

Stitch acknowledged that during the meeting there was "a bit of disagreement" about how a potential failure in a battery would spread to other batteries. There have been no failures, he said, but Stitch added that in past tests there have been times when the batteries "showed a slight load asymmetry."

There has never been a report of potential problems or upgrades to the Starline spacecraft's batteries. The problem will leave Boeing facing more testing and even a redesign of its work list before the spacecraft can be certified by NASA for six future manned missions.

NASA oversaw the development of the Starline spacecraft under a $4.5 billion contract awarded to Boeing in 2014. In 2019, about 80 software glitches led to the suspension of Starline's first unmanned flight test. Fortunately, Boeing successfully completed this mission in 2022.

Boeing also plans to redesign a system to completely separate the Starline spacecraft's main crew module from the service module that contains the thrusters, Stitch said. That way the ship can jettison the service module before returning to earth.

Federal procurement data show NASA has agreed to pay Boeing at least $24.8 million to upgrade the system.

Last year, Boeing also chose to redesign valves on starship propulsion systems to prevent accidental valve closures before launch. In 2021, valve problems caused a long delay in the scheduled launch of the spacecraft.

NASA and Boeing aim to redesign the spacecraft valves for future missions, but the idea has led to disputes between Boeing and the spacecraft's propulsion system suppliers. Last year, it was reported that supplier Aerojet Rocketdyne blamed Boeing for the problems and refused to pay for a redesigned valve.

Boeing has now removed Aerojet Rocketdyne from its plans to redesign the valve and is working directly with Aerojet Rocketdyne's valve supplier, New Jersey-based Marotta, a person familiar with the matter said.

Boeing said: "We are working with Marotta to redesign the spacecraft valves. "

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