NASA and Boeing said a helium leak in its Starliner spacecraft is “stable” and won’t prevent two astronauts from launching into space next week in a mission more than a decade in the making.
NASA and Boeing execs said the cause of a leak in Starliner’s propulsion system had been identified in a press conference on Friday, and it was safe to fly.
A previous launch attempt was scrubbed on May 6 hours before takeoff due to a separate issue — after which the “small” leak was discovered on a flange on one of Starliner’s thrusters, NASA program manager Steve Stich said during the press conference.
Days after it was discovered, “we proved to ourselves that the leak was stable,” added Boeing VP Mark Nappi.
He said the design vulnerability was “very remote” and “not a safety of flight issue.”
“We can handle up to four more leaks,” Stich said, “and we can handle this particular leak if that leak rate were to grow even up to 100 times.”
Now, Boeing’s Starliner is set to take NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 1 and then back after a one-week stay.
There are backup launch opportunities on June 2, June 5, and June 6.
Boeing is playing catch-up with SpaceX, whose Dragon spacecraft has been transporting astronauts to and from the ISS since 2020. Starliner’s maiden voyage comes amid ongoing scrutiny of Boeing’s safety culture around its separate passenger plane division.
The Starliner previously encountered issues on uncrewed test flights in 2019 and 2021.
A Boeing spokesperson referred Business Insider to Friday’s press conference. NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI
