Starliner Boeing Spacecraft Crew Launch Delayed Until March 2024

The multimillion-dollar Starliner spacecraft made by Boeing (photo: dock. nasa)

JAKARTA - Apparently, a multimillion-dollar Starliner spacecraft made by Boeing will not transport humans into orbit this year as previously planned.

Astronauts were supposed to travel in this cone-shaped capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 21 as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

However, that date passed without any launch and now the US company has confirmed that a manned launch will not occur until March 2024.

Boeing said it was necessary to make important improvements to the Starliner parachute, but this fix will not be completed by the end of this year, meaning the launch should be postponed.

This means Boeing is far behind rival SpaceX, which has sent crew to the ISS as part of NASA's program since 2020.

According to reports, Boeing had to take nearly $900 million from its revenue to cover Starliner's costs, including $410 million in 2020, but the total number of these projects is now believed to be 1.4 billion US dollars (IDR 21.1 trillion).

Starliner's latest unmanned mission to the ISS was successfully completed in May last year, but manned launches still have to take place.

Boeing and NASA announced new delays and detailed work still needs to be done on Starliner during a joint online press conference on Monday, August 7.

"Currently, based on current plans, we anticipate that we will be ready for the spacecraft in early March," said Mark Nappi, Vice President of Boeing and Program Manager of Starliner.

He added that the actual launch date would depend on the limitations of the space calendar and would be decided in conjunction with NASA and the United Launch Alliance, which provides the Atlas V launch rocket for Starliners.

During recent testing, Boeing engineers identified new issues related to faulty parachute systems and wire harnes bands widely used inside capsules that turned out to be flammable under some conditions.

Nappi explained that the parachute system component called "soft links" has been strengthened with fiber and repairs have been made to the parachute stitches.

"A large number of electric bands have been removed, while in other areas they have been well protected," he added.

Boeing should have finished removing the ribbon in the coming weeks, but the design-changed parachute system won't be ready until December.

Only if the parachute test goes well later this year, the spacecraft should be ready to transport two NASA astronauts to the ISS in early March.

Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program Manager, maintains this new delay as a step taken for the safety of those in it. He repeated the space agency's commitment to Boeing despite the increasing criticism from observers.

"We will undergo this mission when we are ready," Stich was quoted as saying by DailyMail.

Boeing is one of three companies participating in NASA's Commercial Crew Program - an initiative to send an astronaut team to the ISS on behalf of the space agency.

The program was founded in 2011 with the aim that NASA could divert the development of rides that could travel it, rather than NASA engineers doing it themselves.

NASA awarded a fixed-price contract of USD 4.2 billion (IDR 63.4 trillion) to Boeing and USD 2.6 billion (IDR 39.2 trillion) to SpaceX in 2014, shortly after the end of the shuttle program, at a time when the US had to rely on Russian Soyuz rockets for trips to the ISS.

Elon Musk's SpaceX, which has so far been the most successful member of the program, made its first manned launch to the ISS in May 2020, using the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX is scheduled to launch its seventh manned launch to the ISS for NASA this month and will carry out several further launches after this as part of the program.

Boeing, on the other hand, has long had an initial problem with its Starliner ride, which was originally supposed to make manned flights in 2017.

Boeing launched its first unmanned flight to the ISS in December 2019, although it didn't go as planned because it didn't make it to the space station.

The second unmanned mission in May 2022 was more successful and successfully carried out procedures leaning on the ISS two days after the launch before returning safely.

But last year's launch was unmanned and effective as a test run, so the manned mission is the next step for the company.

But even now there is no guarantee that Starliner will be ready in March, and this ride is taking up more and more valuable time, not to forget the costs incurred.

Although the ISS is planned to be operational by the start of the next decade, NASA says it still wants to have two rival crew launch rides.

The goal is to launch one Boeing crew flight and one SpaceX crew flight every year.

The third member, Sierra Nevada, is still in the development stage of its Dream Chaser spacecraft, but is not expected to get certification for manned missions until the end of the decade.