Boeing Co. on Friday said it would return its Starliner spacecraft to a factory for “deeper-level troubleshooting” to fix stuck valves that have delayed a planned launch this summer.
The decision to remove the Starliner from atop the rocket that was supposed to propel it into space is expected to delay its launch by several months. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday such a move and resulting delay were increasingly likely.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Boeing are slated to hold a press conference about the Starliner mission Friday afternoon. Four of 13 problematic valves remain stuck, Boeing said Friday.
“We’ll continue to work the issue from the Starliner factory and have decided to stand down for this launch window to make way for other” NASA space missions, said Boeing Vice President John Vollmer, who oversees the Starliner.
Earlier this week, Boeing and NASA had said they were weighing potentially launching the Starliner this month. NASA has other missions planned in coming months that complicate scheduling future attempts to launch the Starliner.
