After nearly three weeks of exhaustive tests and data analysis, NASA managers said Friday they are confident Boeing's oft-delayed Starliner crew capsule can safely launch "as is" on June 1, saying a small helium leak in the ship's propulsion system does not pose a flight safety concern, UNN reports, citing CBS News.
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Steve Stich, NASA's commercial crew program manager, said that even if the suspicious rubber seal the size of a shirt button in a pipe leading to one particular engine were to fail completely in flight - leading to a leak 100 times worse than what has been seen so far - the Starliner could still fly safely.
"If we get something wrong, we can fix four more leaks," he said. - "And we could have handled this particular leak if the leak rate had increased, even 100 times in this (propulsion module).
The launch delay will now be almost one month, Stich said.
Two members of NASA's Starliner crew, Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Co-Pilot Sunita Williams, are scheduled to fly to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida next Tuesday to prepare for a launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on an Atlas 5 rocket at 12:25 p.m. EDT (19:25 Kyiv time) on June 1.
If all goes well, they will dock with the International Space Station the next day and return to Earth on June 10.
NASA again postponed the debut manned flight of Boeing's Starliner22.05.24, 17:01