Boeing will relaunch an unmanned test flight of its Starliner spaceship, the company said Monday, after a previous mission failed due to multiple glitches. Starliner’s goal is to take American astronauts to the International Space Station.
A test drive in December ended early when the spacecraft failed to turn on its thrusters in time. Another issue was intermittent space-to-ground communication, which hindered the flight control team’s ability to drive and control the vehicle.
“We have chosen to rerun our Orbital Flight Test to demonstrate the quality of the Starliner system,” said Boeing. “If we fly with another unmanned aerial vehicle, we can complete all flight test objectives and evaluate the performance of the second Starliner vehicle for taxpayers free of charge.
& # 39; We then move on to the enormous responsibility and privilege of flying astronauts to the International Space Station. & # 39; A Boeing spokeswoman was quoted by CBS News saying that the company hopes the mission will be “Fall 2020”. to fly. Starliner’s first manned flight was scheduled to begin in early 2020. The delay further positions the Starliner mission behind the SpaceX from tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who NASA said was preparing to send astronauts to the ISS in May.
NASA has pledged to pay $ 8 billion to Boeing and SpaceX, which are now delivering six trips with four astronauts through 2024. NASA shipped its last space shuttle in 2011. It has since relied on Russian missiles to send American astronauts to the ISS.
Starliner’s failure was the last serious setback for Boeing, which continues to face two fatalities with its 737 Max aircraft.
(This story has not been edited by staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
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