Starliner CFT delays again due to service module leak

Boeing announced Tuesday morning that they, ULA, and NASA are now no longer targeting a launch for this Friday of Boeing‘s first crewed Starliner mission. Due to a helium leak on the Starliner’s service module, the launch is slated for no earlier than May 21.

Sadly we’ll have to wait another week before we witness Starliner’s historic launch from Cape Canaveral with NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. After correcting and replacing a valve on ULA’s Centaur upper stage, teams are now assessing a helium leak on Boeing’s service module.

Helium, which isn’t toxic or flammable, is used regularly in spaceflight to keep sections purged or pressurized. Specifically, this leak is coming from a single reaction control thruster and Boeing is still developing tests and solutions for the issue.

The hope is they won’t have to destack the Starliner spacecraft from the rocket. Doing so would cause further delays, hopefully not long enough that Boeing loses their opening to dock with the ISS.

Sometime in June, we are expecting SpaceX to launch another cargo resupply mission. This would take up the spare IDA port on the ISS that is needed by Starliner for use.