Although NASA has announced that the SpaceX Crew 2 flight is on track, they have also stated that the Boeing Starliner flight to the International Space Station has been delayed. But the Crew-2 flight which has been set for late April remains on time. This SpaceX experiment would use the Crew Dragon spacecraft to transport astronauts from NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Boeing's Starliner Has Been Delayed
Boeing's Starliner space capsule launch, which will transport astronauts to the International Space Station, has been delayed. NASA recently released an update on their ongoing projects, revealing that Boeing Starliner will miss its April 2 launch date by at least a week. Seattle Times said that the delay was caused in part by production losses caused by the intense cold in Texas last month, as well as severe power outages in the Houston region.
BGR said the $4.2 billion Starliner program has been a complete failure in so many ways. When it was finally ready to launch on its unmanned test mission, the spacecraft malfunctioned, burned a lot of fuel it wasn't supposed to burn, and had to return to Earth without ever reaching the orbiting laboratory.
"We did lose time with the weather in Houston. We lost about a week of time," said Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager in a France24 article.
The latest potential launch date is April 9 at the earliest. A one-week delay does not sound like much, but it is merely a symptom of a much greater problem.
Remember, Starliner was expected to be finished by 2017. That was four years ago, and the spacecraft has yet to complete an unmanned flight, let alone a crewed mission to space with a full complement of astronauts.
Although Starliner didn't do what it was supposed to do, NASA and Boeing portrayed the mission as a "success." In the months that followed, NASA scrutinized the Starliner and its development, compiling a long list of issues that it wanted Boeing to address. The company finally checked all of those boxes, but it appears that the spacecraft isn't quite ready for its close-up.
More Details on SpaceX Crew 2 flight
SpaceX Crew Dragon's launch is on time, but it could be shifted slightly if necessary. At the same time, the mission would involve the Crew-1 ship's landing in the rear.
It is actually docked at the International Space Station and must be released before crew-2 arrives. NASA intends to execute the project with some breathing room between a mission window and the "beta cutout" date. It would be important for NASA to correctly time the mission in order to have a good mission.
SpaceX has not encountered any issues that may have caused the crew-2 flight to be postponed. And, apart from a few slight hiccups, the flight training is going swimmingly. Benji Reed, SpaceX's senior director of spaceflight programs, told SpaceNews that everything is on schedule and ready for an April 20 launch readiness date. In 2020, the Demo-2 mission was carried out using the crew-2 flight ship. And it's now getting ready for the most recent update.
The majority of the vehicle's components are in decent working order and do not need replacement. Some pumps, thermal control devices, and parachutes are being replaced to ensure the crew's safety.
It's the same car, according to SpaceX, with some component replacements and modifications that make it safe to drive. SpaceX has also experimented on the plane's layout to increase landing chances and allow for reasonable wind speeds.
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