NASA and Boeing plan to launch the Starliner space capsule in July

Officials said the CST-100 Starliner mission, scheduled so far in April, will take place after July 21.

“We have discussed and decided that the best launch attempt would be no earlier than July 21st for the CFT,” Steve Stitch, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, told reporters.

“We feel very confident about this date,” added Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Starliner program manager.

More time is needed to certify the parachute system designed to return astronauts and spacecraft safely to Earth, Stitch said, and he will conduct a ground test of the parachutes in May.

The spacecraft will launch into space on an Atlas V rocket built by United Launch Alliance from Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States.

If the mission is successful, Boeing’s capsule will finally be certified and its operational flights begin, at a date yet to be determined.

Boeing had hoped to make the first crewed flight of the CST-100 Starliner in 2022, but has suffered several delays.

The company was finally able to reach the International Space Station for the first time in May 2022, without a crew on board.

NASA awarded fixed-price contracts worth $4.2 billion to Boeing and $2.6 billion to SpaceX in 2014, shortly after the space shuttle program ended, during a time when the United States relied on Russian Soyuz rockets for flights to the International Space Station.

NASA wants to adopt the Starliner as a second “taxi” service for its astronauts to the space station, a role Elon Musk has provided SpaceX since a successful test mission of the Dragon capsule in 2020.