If it turns out that the valve needs to be replaced, the operation would take “several days,” Tory Bruno, the head of ULA, said at a press conference. He assured that his teams would work “all night” and should be able to deliver their analysis Tuesday morning.
A safe crew
“The crew was never in danger,” he assured.
American astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were scheduled to take off Monday evening from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The preparations initially went smoothly: the rocket had been filled with fuel, the weather was ideal and the astronauts were seated in their seats. In the end, they will still have to wait.
Things to prove
Boeing is playing big on this final test mission, which should allow its ship to join the very private club of space vehicles that have transported human beings.
The aerospace industry giant must demonstrate that its capsule is safe before beginning regular missions to the Space Station (ISS) — four years behind SpaceX.
For NASA, which ordered this vehicle ten years ago, the stakes are also high: having a second vehicle in addition to that of SpaceX to transport American astronauts should make it possible to better respond to “different emergency scenarios”. , for example in the event of a problem on one of the ships, underlined Dana Weigel, in charge of the ISS program.
Series of setbacks
The success of this mission would also be more than welcome for Boeing, in turmoil over safety problems on its planes, and whose Starliner development program has turned into a saga marked by unpleasant surprises and successive postponements.
In 2019, during a first uncrewed test, the capsule could not be placed on the correct trajectory and returned without reaching the ISS.
Then in 2021, while the rocket was on the launch pad to retry the flight, a problem with blocked valves, this time on the capsule, led to another postponement.
The empty ship finally managed to reach the ISS in May 2022.
Boeing then hoped to be able to carry out its first manned flight the same year. But problems discovered late, notably with the parachutes braking the capsule during its return to the atmosphere, again caused delays.
“There were a number of things that were surprises that we had to overcome,” admitted Boeing manager Mark Nappi. But “it made our teams very strong,” he said.
“It is quite typical that the development of a space vehicle for humans takes ten years,” he added.
Beaten by SpaceX
Only a handful of American ships have carried astronauts in the past.
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule joined this list in 2020, succeeding the legendary Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs.
After the latter stopped in 2011, NASA astronauts had to travel aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
It is to put an end to this dependence that in 2014, the American space agency signed a contract worth 4.2 billion with Boeing and 2.6 billion with SpaceX for the development of new spacecraft.
Despite this difference in funding, “SpaceX finished four years before” its competitor, Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, did not fail to point out on Monday. “Far too many managers are not technicians at Boeing,” he said.
Once Starliner is operational, NASA wants to alternate between SpaceX and Boeing flights to transport its astronauts to the ISS.
