Science

Washington: Boeing has stalled the first crewed flight of its Starliner capsule that was slated for July, over parachute and wiring safety issues, the company has said. Starliner's astronaut launch, which is already running years behind schedule, was scheduled to lift off to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 21 with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Now, it may not launch this year, Space.com reported. "It's feasible, but I certainly wouldn't want to commit to any dates or timeframes," Mark Nappi, Boeing Starliner programme manager and vice president, told reporters in a press conference on Thursday. "We need to spend the next several days understanding what we need to do to solve these problems," he added. Nappi said that during in-depth reviews of Starliner, last week, the officials discovered issues with the Starliner's three main parachutes. The engineers found that the "soft links" used on the suspension lines of Starliner's three main parachutes cannot handle the load of Starliner if one fails. Being able to land safely with two of three chutes is a safety requirement for NASA, Nappi said. Further, they found thatA a protective tape covering the wiring harnesses throughout the Starliner capsule is flammable and there are "hundreds" of feet of it inside Starliner, the report said. "It's highly unlikely that we would go in and cut this tape off," Nappi said, adding that doing so would likely cause more potential damage. "So we're looking at solutions that would provide for essentially another type of wrapping over the existing tape in the most vulnerable areas that reduces the risk of fire hazard." Boeing had signed a contract with NASA's Commercial Crew Programme to fly operational missions to and from t ...