Boeing Says Starliner August Test Launch Still Possible
Voice of America
The aerospace company Boeing said Monday it could still test launch its Starliner crew capsule this month. The company had canceled a scheduled launch of the craft last week.
Boeing issued a statement Monday saying it was working on the problem that caused a prelaunch check to indicate an "unexpected valve position" in the spacecraft's propulsion system. The launch had been scheduled for Tuesday from the launch center of the U.S. space agency, NASA, at Cape Canaveral, Florida. In its statement, Boeing said 13 valves in the Starliner's propulsion system failed to open as designed during that check. The company said that it spent the weekend "restoring functionality" to the propulsion system and that seven of the 13 problematic valves are now operating as designed, "with inspection and remediation of the remaining affected valves to be performed in the days ahead." Boeing said further inspections indicated there had been no lasting damage to the system. The company said it was working with NASA and United Launch Alliance — the company that builds the launch rocket for the capsule — to assess "multiple launch opportunities" for the Starliner this month.In this image provided by Giant Screen Films, Liam Fisher, Kaiden Madsen and Jessin Fisher pose for a celebratory photo on the day their fossil find was determined to be a juvenile T. rex, in North Dakota. In this photo provided by Giant Screen Films, Jessin Fisher digs for fossils on public lands near his home in Marmath, N.D. (Sam Fisher/Giant Screen Films via AP) The Hell Creek badlands of southwestern North Dakota, U.S., where a fossil of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex was discovered, is seen in this July 2016 handout photo. (Erik Freeman/Handout via Reuters)
This image released by Sony Pictures shows characters Jon, voiced by Nicholas Hoult, clockwise from left, Vic, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, and Garfield, voiced by Chris Pratt, in a scene from the animated film "The Garfield Movie." This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows a scene from "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga."
Engineer Guillermo D. Christy photographs a steel pillar filled with concrete that was installed inside the Aktun Tuyul cave system to support the Maya Train track on the outskirts of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, March 3, 2024. A passenger looks at the passing jungle landscape while traveling on the Maya Train from Cancun to Valladolid, Mexico, March 6, 2024. When it's completed, the high-speed Maya Train will wind around Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula. A line of the Mayan Train is built using material dug out from the nearby tropical forest near Playa del Carmen, Mexico, March 1, 2024. When it's completed, the high-speed Maya Train will wind around Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula. Workers build a Maya Train railway track near Playa del Carmen, Mexico, March 10, 2024. Engineer Guillermo D. Christy shows his hand stained with rust after touching a steel pillar in the Aktun Tuyul cave system. Construction of the Maya Train is rapidly destroying much of the hidden underground world of caverns and sinkhole lakes. A Mayan Train worker waits for passengers to board in Cancun, Mexico, March 6, 2024. ight shines through a hole made by massive metal drills to introduce a steel pillar filled with concrete that will be used to support a part of the Maya Train track, inside the Aktun Tuyul cave system on the outskirts of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, March 3, 2024. A hat sits on a Maya Train passenger seat en route to Valladolid, Mexico, Wednesday, March 6, 2024.
A thermometer showing 29° C (84.2° F), is seen hanging from a wall in the shadow, during the first heat alert of the year, on a hot spring day, in a street in Ronda, Spain, May 30, 2024. A man carries a child with its head covered with a towel to protect it from the heat in Jammu, India, June 2, 2024. A street is flooded by the river Schmutter, following heavy rainfalls in Fischach, near Augsburg, Germany, June 1, 2024.