Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel members are cautioning NASA that the schedules for upcoming crew test flights in August are too soon, Space News reported Monday.Patricia Sanders, who chairs ASAP, said at a meeting that the panel sees continued progress and a large amount of work to be done before the flights.
One of the issues delaying the schedule is a problem with the abort engine system of Boeing‘s Starliner spacecraft, identified during a recent hot-fire test.
Additionally, SpaceX is working to redesign the Falcon 9 rocket’s composite overwrapped pressure vessels that store helium in propellant tanks, following a two-year-old incident that led to a rocket’s destruction.
The company is also addressing potentially dangerous anomalies in the Falcon 9’s Merlin 1D engine.
