Crew-9 Launch Slips to Give NASA More Time to Analyze Starliner Data

NASA is delaying the launch of the next International Space Station crew exchange mission, Crew-9, as it continues to assess the health of Boeing’s Starliner capsule. Framing the decision as allowing “operational flexibility,” the agency will hold a media teleconference tomorrow to provide an update. When Crew-9 does lift off, it will be the first SpaceX crewed launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station next door to Kennedy Space Center.

The delay continues the saga of Boeing’s star-crossed Starliner program, which has encountered one problem after another over the past four years. A Public-Private Partnership between Boeing and NASA where Boeing must absorb cost overruns, it has cost the company $1.6 billion already.

Two months ago, Boeing and NASA were finally ready to launch Starliner on its Crew Flight Test (CFT) with two NASA astronauts after two uncrewed tests in 2019 and 2022 and a one-year delay for CFT.

The launch of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both experienced astronauts and Navy test pilots, was delayed at the last minute by a helium leak, but lifted off on June 5. That pre-launch helium leak was assessed to be stable and not a show-stopper, but four more developed during the one-day trip to ISS. On top of that, five of the 28 Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters went off-line. Four later recovered, but one will not be used for the rest of the mission.

NASA and Boeing have been conducting tests on the ground and in space since then to find out what happened. Butch and Suni’s visit to the ISS has been repeatedly extended. They were supposed to stay for 8 days and it’s been almost 9 weeks already. No date has been set for their return.  Speculation is growing that NASA may bring them back on a SpaceX Crew Dragon instead of Starliner. In several media briefings over the past several weeks, NASA officials would go so far only as saying that bringing them back on Starliner is their preference.

On July 27, Boeing conducted on-orbit tests of the thrusters and checked the helium leaks, reporting that “both teams were very happy with the results.”

NASA has been more circumspect and today said they were going to delay the launch of Crew-9 as they continue to analyze the test data.

This adjustment allows more time for mission managers to finalize return planning for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test currently docked to the orbiting laboratory. Starliner ground teams are taking their time to analyze the results of recent docked hot-fire testing, finalize flight rationale for the spacecraft’s integrated propulsion system, and confirm system reliability ahead of Starliner’s return to Earth. NASA and Boeing continue to evaluate the spacecraft’s readiness, and no decisions have been made regarding Starliner’s return. — NASA

They’ll discuss the situation at a media teleconference tomorrow at 12:30 pm ET. Audio will air on the agency’s website.

SpaceX and Boeing were awarded contracts to develop “commercial crew” systems in 2014 to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS after the space shuttle was terminated. NASA wanted two service providers for redundancy and competition.

Since 2020 when SpaceX’s Crew Dragons began flying, the seven-person international ISS crews typically rotate on 6-month schedules, three on Russian Soyuz spacecraft and four on Crew Dragon.

SpaceX’s eighth operational Crew Dragon mission, Crew-8, with four astronauts arrived at the ISS in March. Ordinarily they would return about now. NASA likes to have a five-day handover between crews and announced on July 28 that the targeted launch date for Crew-9 was August 18. However, they added the launch might wait until early September depending on the Starliner situation. NASA wanted to launch no later than that not only because the next Soyuz crew exchange is September 11, but the launch pad SpaceX uses for crew launches to ISS is needed for another NASA mission that is launching in early October, Europa Clipper.

Today’s announcement that Crew-9 will wait until September 24 suggests NASA is not ready to commit to returning Butch and Suni on Starliner and might launch Crew-9 with just two instead of four crew members so they can return on a Crew Dragon instead.  NASA hasn’t said that, however, only that they are “taking their time” to analyze the data.

Interestingly, that means this will be the first Crew Dragon to lift off from SpaceX’s other Florida launch site, Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station next door to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

SpaceX has been launching satellites from SLC-40 and KSC’s Launch Complex 39A for many years, but crewed launches have always been from 39A. Because of its high launch cadence and plans to launch the much larger Starship rocket from 39A in the future, SpaceX decided to upgrade SLC-40 to have a second pad that could accommodate crews.

This will be the first and “deconflicts” Crew-9 from preparations for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa on a Falcon Heavy from 39A around October 10.

Somewhat surprisingly, no one from Boeing is on the list of participants for tomorrow’s media telecon at least as of press time. Mark Nappi, Boeing Vice President and Program Manager for Commercial Crew has participated in all the recent Starliner briefings. On Friday, Boeing posted a list of the tests it’s conducted and expressed confidence that Starliner can safely return Butch and Suni to Earth.

 

Note: this article was updated to state that Boeing has spent $1.6 billion of its own money on Starliner, a figure that was confirmed to SpacePolicyOnline.com by Boeing. The information was originally reported by Joey Roulette of Reuters who added that NASA also added $326 million to the contract due to change orders.