Boeing's Calamity Capsule launch date slides into the future

Boeing's Starliner, aka the Calamity Capsule, has suffered another setback after a hoped-for May 25 launch date has been dropped as engineers work to deal with a helium leak in the spacecraft's propulsion system.

NASA has reportedly dropped the not earlier than (NET) date to give engineers more time to evaluate the issue.

"The team has been in meetings for two consecutive days, assessing flight rationale, system performance, and redundancy," the US space agency said. "There is still forward work in these areas, and the next possible launch opportunity is still being discussed.

"NASA will share more details once we have a clearer path forward."

The Register contacted NASA for more details and will update should it respond.

The leak was traced to a flange on a single reaction control thruster. Starliner has 28 reaction control thrusters on the service module, which is where the problem lies. The ...