NASA has revealed to Roscosmos the cause of problems with the Starliner spacecraft. This is reported by RIA Novosti with reference to a source in the rocket and space industry.
According to the agency interlocutor, the reason for the postponement of the Starliner launch was problems in the valves of several low-thrust engines. It is noted that Boeing engineers are currently engaged in their elimination, but NASA has no preliminary dates when the ship will be ready to return to the launch table.
A source in the rocket and space industry also said that Russian specialists have asked NASA to keep them informed, since problems with the low-thrust engines that are used for maneuvering at the International Space Station (ISS) can be potentially dangerous for the ISS.
Earlier it was reported that the Atlas 5 heavy rocket with the Starliner spacecraft without a crew did not launch from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome in Florida (USA) on August 3 due to a technical malfunction.
Commenting on this situation, the head of the press service of Roscosmos, Vladimir Ustimenko, called the earlier attempt to link the postponement of the Starliner launch with the Russian multifunctional laboratory module (MLM) "Science"ugly. "But what I can't understand is the attempts of NASA and Boeing, if there are serious problems, to blame the Russian Nauka module for the transfer. Despite the fact that there was bad weather at the cosmodrome, and the ship and the rocket were returned back to the vertical assembly shop, which would not have been done if the transfer really happened because of "Science". It's ugly, " he wrote Ustimenko in Telegram.
On August 4, the Starliner was supposed to dock to the ISS, and on August 9, it was supposed to undock and land four hours later at the White Sands test site (New Mexico).
In July , RIA Novosti, citing the American Space Agency , reported that NASA had decided to postpone the test launch of the Starliner to the ISS due to the situation with "Science". Roscosmos refused to consider the MLM incident as the reason for the postponement of the launch of this spacecraft.
Marina Sovina
