WASHINGTON: Boeing aims for the unmanned CST-100 Starliner Capsule flight in the first half of next year and the potential for the launch of the crew spacecraft at the end of 2022, said the company official said Tuesday.
CST-100 has been scheduled to fly to International Space Station (ISS) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 3 but the flight was canceled only hours before it was launched due to the problem of the propulsion system.
Boeing officials told reporters in the briefing on Tuesday that they were still testing valves but they might become jammed due to moisture or condensation.
“Normal environmental moisture is likely to be a source of moisture in the valve,” Michelle Parker, Space Boeing and Chief Engineer, said.
Boeing was forced to remove the spacecraft from Atlas V Rocket built by United Launch Alliance and transport it to the factory at the Kennedy Space Center for solving valve problems.
JOHN VOLLMER, Vice President and the Program Manager of the Boeing commercial crew program, said the aerospace giant is now looking for a unmanned CST-100 test flight in the “first half of 2022”.
If the flight works, “We will see CFT (flight crewed test) maybe at the end of the year,” Vollmer said.
“We like to see six months between flights,” he said.
Boeing built a Starliner under the contract with NASA to the ferry astronaut to low Earth orbit after the end of the space shuttle program in 2011.
NASA gave Boeing and Spacex contracts multi-billion dollars to provide taxi services to the space station and the end.
We rely on Russian rockets for travel.
The SpaceX program has moved forward faster, after now doing four crewed missions.
The Boeing program was left behind and the canceled Starliner launch was a setback for the company.
Boeing needs to complete a mission that is not proven before it can bring astronauts.
During an unmanned initial test flight in December 2019, the Starliner capsule experienced a disruption with its drivers.
It does not have enough fuel to reach ISS and must return to earth prematurely.