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Washington (AFP)
An unmanned test mission of Boeing’s Starliner space capsule, which will eventually transport astronauts to the International Space Station, had to be postponed, NASA said Monday.
The test, which had previously been postponed until early April, will be delayed again, this time due to record low temperatures in Texas that led to major power outages in the southern US state.
“We wasted time on the weather in Houston. We lost about a week of time,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said during a news conference.
NASA “continues to evaluate options” for the new test date.
The Starliner’s first crewed flight is currently scheduled for September, Stich added.
During an initial test flight in December 2019, the Starliner capsule failed to dock with the ISS and returned to Earth prematurely, a setback for aerospace giant Boeing.
Since then, his program has lagged far behind SpaceX, the other company, owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, chosen by NASA to develop a craft to transport astronauts to the ISS.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule already brought astronauts to the station in June and November 2020. Four other astronauts, including Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, will return to the ISS in April.
© 2021 AFP
