CBS News reports that engineers are confident the leak will not worsen in flight, and even if it does, the Starliner can safely launch June 1. The article cites Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, who said that “even if a suspect shirt-button-size rubber seal in the plumbing leading to one specific thruster failed completely in flight — resulting in a leak rate 100 times worse than what’s been observed to date — the Starliner could still fly safely.”
Full Story (CBS News)
Tag: Leak
Starliner Crew Flight Test Delayed Further Due to Ongoing Helium Leak Review
Spaceflight Now reports that the shift in launch date is to allow more time to build in redundancy to account for the helium leak. The new target launch date is currently scheduled for “no earlier than Saturday, May 25, at 3:09 p.m. EDT .”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)
Russian Spacecraft Leak Caused by External Impact
The AP reports that Roscosmos said a coolant leak “from an uncrewed Russian supply ship docked at the International Space Station resulted from an external impact and not a manufacturing flaw.” The leak was spotted on the Progress MS-21 cargo ship on February 11, and came after a similar leak from a Soyuz capsule last December. Russian space officials “said that December’s leak was caused by a tiny meteoroid that left a small hole in the exterior radiator and sent coolant spewing into space.” The new leak “from another ship raised doubts about that theory, and Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos launched a probe into the incident to check whether it could have resulted from a manufacturing defect.”
More Info (Associated Press)