BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Boeing’s Starliner has a new launch date after United Launch Alliance replaced a pressure regulation valve that scrubbed last week’s launch attempt.
According to a news release, NASA, Boeing, and ULA are now targeting no earlier than 4:43 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21, at at Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral.
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Boeing said the ULA team successfully replaced the pressure regulation valve on the liquid oxygen tank on the Atlas V rocket’s Centaur upper stage on Sunday. That replacement required the Starliner spacecraft to be rolled back to the Vertical Integration Facility.
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After running tests on the replaced valve, it performed normally, officials said.
In addition, officials said that Starliner teams are working to resolve a small helium leak found in the spacecraft’s service module traced to a flange on a single reaction control system thruster.
NASA and Boeing will “bring the propulsion system up to flight pressurization just as it does prior to launch, and then allow the helium system to vent naturally to validate existing data and strengthen flight rationale,” according to the release.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are still in preflight quarantine but returned to Houston on Friday to spend more time with their families as prelaunch operations progress.
They will fly back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the coming days, officials said.
The scrubbed attempt adds to Starliner’s long list of delays as Boeing grappled with continued technical issues. The project is running years behind schedule.