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Boeing has hit another delay with its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. This one is indefinite. The cause is the same as the last couple of delays: a leak of helium from the craft’s service module.
“The team has been in meetings for two consecutive days, assessing flight rationale, system performance and redundancy,” NASA said in a statement shared with CBS News. “There is still forward work in these areas, and the next possible launch opportunity is still being discussed.”
That’s bad news for what had been one of Boeing’s last sources of a possible PR win, amid its troubles following a January door plug blowout on one of its 737 Max 9 planes operated by Alaska Airlines.
Though there have been test launches of the Starliner, which is designed to be able to launch from Earth and return for future missions like the space shuttle, this would have been the first manned flight. That was supposed to happen May 6, but the leak pushed the date back multiple times. Now it’s not clear when it will happen.
Boeing first announced the Starliner in 2010, and it was originally expected to be operational by 2015. The project has faced a number of delays over the years, though, from struggles fitting it on top of a rocket to software problems. The NASA contract with Boeing to develop the spacecraft was for $4.6 billion, but Bloomberg reports that Boeing has actually lost $1.5 billion developing it.