Boeing’s Starliner program has been dealt another delay. The first manned flight of the “astronaut taxi” was previously scheduled for July 21 but by early June was delayed “indefinitely” as the company found new issues with the Starliner’s wiring and parachute system. While NASA officials were hopeful that the launch could be rescheduled for this fall, it’s now being pushed back to next March.
The parachute links were found to have a load limit lower than intended that could cause a failure if the craft were to depend on two of the three parachutes. The Starliner is also reported to have “hundreds” of feet of flammable anti-chafe tape on its wiring. In June, Boeing said it would encapsulate the suspect wiring rather than try to remove all of the protective material.
At a press conference today, Mark Nappi, Starliner VP and program manager, said, “Based on the current plans, we’re anticipating that we’re going to be ready with the spacecraft in early March.” Other reports highlight the fact that this is not a firm launch date because of the needed coordination with NASA and the United Launch Alliance. Nappi said that “we’ll work throughout the next several weeks and see where we can get fit in and then we’ll set a launch date.”
Starliner has had two flights so far in three attempts. One flight attempted in August of 2022 failed to launch, while the flight in December 2019 failed to reach the International Space Station. An unmanned Starliner docked with the ISS in May 2022.
