After troubled first flight, Boeing will refly Starliner without crew
CHICAGO - Boeing announced on Monday evening that it will refly its Starliner spacecraft, without astronauts, to demonstrate the vehicle's safety for NASA, reports Eric Berger for Ars Technica. Continue reading original article.
The Intelligent Aerospace take:
April 7, 2020 -In late December, a planned mission was truncated after a "mission elapsed time" error, which was blamed on two software errors. NASA's human spaceflight chief, Doug Loverro, called the incident a "high-visibility close call." Boeing will refly and retest its spacecraft.
"The Boeing Company is honored to be a provider for the Commercial Crew mission," the company said in a statement. "We are committed to the safety of the men and women who design, build and ultimately will fly on the Starliner just as we have on every crewed mission to space. We have chosen to refly our Orbital Flight Test to demonstrate the quality of the Starliner system. Flying another uncrewed flight will allow us to complete all flight test objectives and evaluate the performance of the second Starliner vehicle at no cost to the taxpayer. We will then proceed to the tremendous responsibility and privilege of flying astronauts to the International Space Station."
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Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace
