NASA and Boeing provided an update Friday on the status of the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission.
The discussion was about the second uncrewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station, as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
According to a release, NASA and Boeing have stood down from the Aug. 4 launch opportunity so mission teams could examine valves in the CST-100 Starliner propulsion system that were in unexpected positions. It stated that mission teams decided to roll the Atlas V and Starliner back to the Vertical Integration Facility for further inspection and testing.
The following people participated in the discussion:
- Kathryn Lueders, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations
- Joel Montalbano, manager of NASA’s International Space Station Program
- Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
- John Vollmer, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program
Lueders said it is a disappointing day but said how this mission is important to them and its crew. She said they will continue to investigate and conduct rounds of testing before another launch. Lueders said when a problem occurs, the team has to have the maturity to stop, investigate and solve those problems to prepare to fly again when ready.
She said this has been hard on their NASA and Boeing team and noted how hard the teams have been working on the problem for a week and a half.
“We will fly this test when we are ready to fly,” Vollmer said.
Watch the full discussion below: