Spaceflight of Sunita Williams Postponed Again

Boeing’s Starliner mission to carry astronauts including Sunita Williams into space has been postponed again at least till May 21, the company said on Tuesday. The recent postponement is due to an issue with the spacecraft’s propulsion system.

Starliner’s scheduled liftoff from Florida last week was deferred because of a technical issue with its Atlas 5 rocket. The launch was rescheduled to May 17.

The liftoff has again been postponed at least till next Tuesday, Boeing said in a statement.

NASA, @BoeingSpace, and @ulalaunch are now targeting no earlier than 4:43pm May 21 for the launch of the agency's Boeing Crew Flight Test mission.

On May 11, the ULA team successfully replaced a pressure regulation valve on the liquid oxygen tank on the Atlas V rocket’s Centaur… pic.twitter.com/2Ra38p2U5B

— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) May 14, 2024

“Starliner teams are working to resolve a small helium leak detected in the spacecraft’s service module,” Boeing said, adding that engineers traced the leak to a component on one of the propulsion system’s 28 control thrusters that are used for maneuvering in Earth’s orbit.

Boeing has been developing Starliner for more than a decade to provide NASA with a second U.S. spacecraft capable of ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Starliner’s latest mission, called the Crewed Flight Test, is due to be the final test before the spacecraft is certified by the U.S. space agency to fly routine astronaut missions to the ISS.