NASA and Boeing Co. said they were standing down from plans to send a crewed flight test of its Starliner spacecraft to and from the International Space Station.
This is the latest of several mishaps to Boeing’s Starliner program. It had planned to launch its test flight on July 21, which would have been Starliner’s first time transporting humans to and from space.
In a press conference on Thursday, NASA and Boeing said they had recently discovered two new concerns with Starliner, including flammable tape and issues with the vehicle’s parachutes. They said they’ll spend the next five to seven days figuring out how to move ahead with the schedule, but did not give a new estimated launch date.
Boeing and NASA had previously delayed the crewed launch test. The pair recently moved the flight to July from the end of April. Before that, they had set to launch Starliner in February. The delays have cost Boeing as much as $883 million since 2020, the company has said.
