Boeing has announced that the company is "standing down" from a planned attempt to launch its Starliner spacecraft on July 21 after identifying multiple problems with the craft, according to media reports.
That flight, which would have brought a pair of NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, is now postponed indefinitely following a discussion at “the top levels of Boeing,” Mark Nappi, Boeing’s vice president, said at a Thursday conference, citing human safety.
One of the issues related to the fiber used in the Starliner’s parachute systems which could compromise the crew’s safety during the re-entry process, according to the weapons manufacturing company. Another involved a heavily-used tape found to be flammable.
It’s the latest in a series of delays which have already pushed back plans for Starliner’s first crewed flight by months. The proposed date in July came after Boeing issued a rain check on its previous push for an April launch.
Both NASA and Boeing announced Thursday that they’re looking into a new proposed date for the launch.
Under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, Boeing has been awarded nearly $5 billion in contracts to build the Starliner spacecraft. The capsule is in competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which looks increasingly likely to have wrapped up all six of its originally planned NASA missions before Boeing finishes its first.
The competition to build a new capsule for NASA was once thought of as a kind of modern space race. But instead of emerging as a SpaceX competitor, Boeing has racked up $833 million in losses on its Starliner program over two years.
Nonetheless, Nappi has insisted that Boeing is “still committed” to competing work on the capsule and delivering a functional craft to NASA.