Boeing Suffers Problems During Starline Test Of Launch Abort Engines

Boeing confirmed on 21st of July 2018 that there was an 'anomaly' during a recent test for the launch aborts engines conducted on its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew. This might delay an important milestone for the vehicle that was about to carry astronauts. The event occured during a hot-fire test of engines that will be used by Starline's abort system. The system is a part of a spacecraft service module. The test was a preliminary to an abort test that was planned during late summer.

This test was conducted at NASA's White Sand Test Facility in New Mexico. The company's statement said that the engines were ignited and ran successfully for full duration; it was during shutdown that an anomaly caused a propellant leak. Boeing did not discuss the nature of the problem. Although, there are sources that guessed that hydrazine valve in the propulsion system failed to close properly that caused the propellant to leak. AerojetRocketdyne has provided the engines that use hypergolic propellants and generate 40,000 pounds of thrust. It is not clear yet so as to what effect this testing problem will have on the progress of Starliner. According to a statement by Boeing, they do not have any schedule updates for test program. It is speculated that updates for commercial test schedules for both SpaceX and Boeing will be released next week. Even before the incident, it was expected that the launch dates would slip well into 2019.

By: Neha Maheshwari

Content: https://spacenews.com/boeings-starliner-launch-abort-engine-suffers-problem-during-testing/