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Persistent helium leak triggers additional delay for Boeing's hard-luck Starliner spacecraft


Ongoing work to resolve a persistent helium leak has pushed the first piloted Starliner flight back at least four more days, to May 25.

The astronauts had hoped to take off on the Starliner's first piloted test flight on May 6, but the countdown was called off because of trouble with an oxygen pressure relief valve in their Atlas 5 rocket's Centaur upper stage. Pressurized helium gas is used to push propellants to the rocket motors in each doghouse, as well as to four powerful launch abort engines that would only be fired in the event of a catastrophic problem with the Atlas 5 on the way to orbit. Mission managers considered a range of options for resolving the issue, but they decided Friday to press ahead toward a launch opportunity on May 25, pending additional data reviews and analysis to show the leak, which is currently stable and within acceptable limits, will not worsen in flight.

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