The first manned flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has been postponed to May 17 for the replacement of a valve on the Atlas V rocket that prevented the planned launch on May 7.
After an “exhaustive” review of data, the rocket manufacturer -ULA (United Launch Alliance)- decided “replace a pressure regulating valve in the liquid oxygen tank on the Centaur upper stage of the Atlas V rocket.”
ULA has decided to withdraw the rocket, with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft returning to its Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the replacement. The team will perform leak checks and functional checks in support of the next launch attempt.
“The oscillating behavior of the valve during pre-launch operations” ultimately resulted in it the mission teams interrupted the countdown, according to NASA. After ground crew and astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams safely exited Space Launch Complex-41, the ULA team successfully commandeered the valve, closed it, and the oscillations were temporarily damped. “The oscillations were repeated twice during fuel extraction operations,” the statement said.
After evaluating valve history, launch attempt data signatures, and evaluating risks related to continued use, ULA team determined valve exceeded its rating and mission managers agreed to remove and replace the valve.
Destination: the International Space Station
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s mission is to fly Starliner to the International Space Station to attach to the front port of the Harmony module. They will spend about a week docked at the space station before returning to Earth.
Starliner is the result of the contract that NASA signed with Boeing and Space X to transport its astronauts to the International Space Station. While Space X’s Crew Dragon has been flying astronauts regularly to the orbital complex since May 2020Boeing’s Starliner has suffered years of delays.
This capsule has been released only twice to date, on uncrewed test flights to the orbital laboratory. Starliner suffered several problems on the first mission, which launched in December 2019, and failed to reach the orbital complex as planned. But he achieved it on his second attempt, in May 2022.
Externally similar to the Orion spacecraft, the reusable Starliner capsule has a diameter of 4.56 meters and is Designed to be able to transport up to seven peopleremain in orbit for up to seven months and be reused in up to ten missions.
