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On Tuesday, a joint teleconference between NASA and Boeing officials was held on the current status of Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) after a valve anomaly prevented its launch in August

The Boeing teams have removed two of the three valves from Service Module-2, with a third planned to be removed soon.  These three valves will then be shipped to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, located in Huntsville, Alabama

Not long after Starliner arrived back at the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF) in August, Boeing teams found the most likely cause of the valve anomaly which was an interaction between humidity and the oxidizer in the valves of Service Module-2

“We believe our quickest path back to launch is to use Service Module-2 again,” said Michelle Parker, Chief Engineer for Boeing Space and Launch, “assuming that we can do that in a safe manner that ensures the operation of the vehicle now that we’ve continued to look at remediation efforts there including adding desiccant to the valves to prevent further moisture ingression as well at looking at adding heaters.”

John Vollmer, Boeing’s Vice President and Program Manager of the Commercial Crew program stated that they are still targeting the first half of 2022 for the launch of OFT-2

(Lead image: Starliner rolled out at SLC-41 before the launch of OFT-2 was scrubbed – via Stephen Marr for NSF/L2)