Houston, June 18 (China News Agency) - The date of the return of the Boeing Interstellar spacecraft carrying two American astronauts to Earth has been postponed to the 26th, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on June 18.
After the return date of the interstellar plane to Earth was twice postponed, NASA announced on its official website on the 18th that the agency and Boeing's current plan is for the spacecraft to separate from the International Space Station as early as 22:10 on the 25th and land at White Sands Space Port in New Mexico around 4:51 the next day.
According to Reuters, NASA's commercial manned program manager Steve Stitch said at a press conference on the 18th that the decision aims to give the team more time to review and analyze data to ensure true preparation for the spacecraft's return to Earth. According to reports, the interstellar aircraft can stay on the International Space Station for up to 45 days during this mission.
On the 5th, the interstellar aircraft took off on the Cosmos 5 carrier rocket of the United States Joint Launch Alliance, carrying out its first manned test flight mission. The next day, the spacecraft docked with the International Space Station. During the test flight, the interstellar aircraft experienced multiple helium leaks. When approaching the space station, 5 of the 28 thrusters of the interstellar aircraft malfunctioned.
Since the retirement of the US space shuttle in 2011, the country has been vigorously developing commercial manned space operations. Boeing and SpaceX received a manned spacecraft project contract from NASA in 2014 to build the Starplane and Dragon spacecraft, respectively. NASA plans to use these two manned spacecraft to take turns transporting astronauts to the space station.
According to the initial plan, the spacecraft developed by both companies was scheduled to launch a manned flight mission in 2017, but both sides severely delayed the progress. As of now, the "Dragon" spacecraft has carried out manned flight missions multiple times; The development progress of the interstellar aircraft has been delayed multiple times due to technical issues, resulting in losses of over 1 billion US dollars for the company. (End)