This was reported by Space.com, according to Ukrinform’s report.

NASA did not explain the reason for the schedule change. Representatives of the agency added that the date of the first operational flight of the Boeing spacecraft has also been postponed from summer 2024 to early 2025.

NASA and Boeing had previously announced that they were planning Starliner’s first crewed mission, known as Crew Flight Test (CFT), for early March 2024. However, this was not the official date, only the expected readiness date of the spacecraft.

As part of CFT, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will perform a round-trip test flight to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission faced a number of delays due to various technical issues that repeatedly delayed its launch.

For example, the CFT flight was planned to take place in July last year, but this plan was canceled after the teams detected problems with the Starliner’s cables and parachute system.

In September 2014, NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX to fly astronauts to and from the ISS, awarding multibillion-dollar contracts to each company. While SpaceX’s seventh operational flight to the ISS launched on August 25, the Starliner has only launched twice and has never been manned.

As Ukrinform reported, SpaceX and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) postponed the launch of the Psyche mission to the asteroid Psyche until Friday, October 13, due to adverse weather conditions.

Photo: Joel Kowsky/NASA