Boeing Co. will remove its Starliner capsule from a rocket to make a deeper examination of propulsion system valves after a launch was scrubbed last week, a step that could push the planned mission until next year.
Four of the 13 valves in the Starliner’s propulsion system remain closed and will undergo a “deeper-level troubleshooting” at Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, the company said in a statement Friday. Boeing, NASA and rocket maker United Launch Alliance expect to decide on a new launch date after the issue is resolved. The setback is yet another blow to Boeing’s efforts to convince NASA that the craft can safely and reliably ferry crews to the International Space Station. The latest move will result in a lengthy delay for the Starliner’s next test flight, given the busy schedule for ULA and a shortage of available docking ports at the orbital lab.
Crews had exhausted every option to diagnose the valve problems while the craft was sitting atop the ULA Atlas V rocket. They now need to return the capsule to a Boeing facility for deeper analysis, said John Vollmer, vice president and program manager for the Starliner program.
It’s too early to say when the craft will launch, he said.
“We would certainly hope for as early as possible and if we could fly this year it would be fantastic, but at this point, I think that would be too much to speculate,” he said at a news conference.
Boeing fell 1.4% to $234.79 at 3:10 p.m. in New York. The stock had climbed 11% this year through Thursday while the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 16%.
The company is trying to demonstrate that it can fulfill a National Aeronautics and Space Administration contract to carry astronauts to the space station, matching the abilities of Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
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