Financial Services Association, May 25 (Editor Shi Zhengcheng) On Friday local time, Boeing and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) held a joint media conference call. In addition to confirming the date for the next Boeing “Starliner” to attempt its first manned space test flight, they also discussed in detail a series of new issues that have arisen with this spacecraft over the past few weeks.

According to the plan, the “CST-100 Starliner” (Starliner), which Boeing has been developing for a full decade, will carry two senior astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, take them to the International Space Station and return after a week.

Originally, this historic test flight was scheduled to take place on the 6th of this month, but close to launch, it was reported on the scene that the Atlas V rocket aboard the “Starliner” had a valve problem, and the launch had to be cancelled. The Atlas V rocket was developed by the Joint Launch Company, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Attempted launch on June 1

Boeing and NASA announced that the latest plan is to ignite and launch at 12:25 EST on June 1. The next alternative launch windows are June 2, June 5, and June 6, respectively.

What made the outside world sweat Boeing and the two astronauts, also said that although the rocket's faulty valve had been replaced, subsequent engineers discovered a “small helium leak” in the “Starliner” propulsion system. Helium is an inert gas used to push propellant to a propeller. So theoretically, if too much helium is lost, the propeller may not work properly.

After investigation, the leak was traced to a helium gas delivery pipe seal for a reaction control system engine. On the “Starliner”, there are a total of 28 such engines. Steve Stich, project manager for NASA's commercial manned program, explained that just like the faucets in every home, seals are needed to keep the interface tight.

After intense research, the engineers came to the conclusion: it's not a big problem, so let it just keep leaking. Another consideration is that if this seal is to be replaced, the spacecraft will need to be removed from the rocket, which will further delay the test flight schedule. Stich stressed on Friday that even if that particular leak rate increased 100 times, the launch team could handle it.

Due to the continuous delays in the development of the Interstellar Line, Boeing has already lost more than 1.5 billion US dollars on this project. This is still in the case of NASA subsidies.

Seemingly to calm the outside world's concerns about “airborne spacecraft,” Stich specifically emphasized that NASA has done this kind of thing many times. He said that NASA has also flown many aircraft that have had small helium leaks in the past, including many missions carried out by the Space Shuttle and SpaceX's “Dragon spacecraft.”

Stich also said that even if it takes off with problems on May 6, such faults can be handled very well during the flight.

The leak problem also brought more flaws

And this leak also prompted NASA to carry out a more extensive inspection of the Boeing spacecraft's propulsion system, and certainly discovered “design fragility” — if a series of events with a very small probability occur, the spacecraft may not be able to safely bring astronauts back to Earth.

Simply put, if the large engine used to perform the derailment operation fails, one backup plan is to use eight smaller thrusters. However, NASA's analysis shows that in the event of another failure, only four smaller thrusters may be usable.

Boeing's engineers then urgently added a backup plan to enable the spacecraft to detach from orbit using only 4 smaller propellers.

According to reports, Boeing, NASA, and the United Launch Company will review the spacecraft leak again on May 29. If everything continues as usual, the rocket and spacecraft will be delivered to the launch pad on May 30, waiting for a test flight on June 1.