Starliner Valve Investigation Focuses on Moisture Interaction with Propellant Written 18 October 2021
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft mounted atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. | Frank Michaux/NASA
Space News reported that The Boeing Company continues to investigate what caused 13 of the CST-100 Starliner’s valves to stick in the closed position before its scrubbed test flight in early August. The leading cause for the valve failure “is that nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) propellant, leaking through the valve, reacted with moisture and created nitric oxide, corroding the valve.”
Full Story (Space News)