SoylentNews

KilroySmith [soylentnews.org] writes:

Not going anytime soon [starlinerupdates.com]
"Today, Boeing informed NASA that the company will destack its CST-100 Starliner from the Atlas V rocket and return the spacecraft to the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility
(C3PF) for deeper-level troubleshooting of four propulsion system valves that remain closed after last Tuesday’s scrubbed launch."

Boeing's Starliner [wikipedia.org] is a human-rated space capsule built for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Its initial test flight in December 2019 (OFT-1 [wikipedia.org]) was partially successful, but due to software errors was unable to dock with the International Space Station. This was to be its second flight test (OFT-2 [wikipedia.org]), but less than 24 hours before launch 13 valves in the propulsion system of the capsule were found to be stuck; after several days of "applying mechanical, electrical and thermal techniques to prompt the valves open" [starlinerupdates.com], seven (and now nine) of the thirteen have been restored to operation. But the remaining four are being recalcitrant, and more invasive work will need to be done.

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