Boeing halts crewed launch after valve issue is detected
- by Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette
- May 07, 2024
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Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams leave the Operations and Checkout building before heading to Space Launch Complex 41 to board Boeing's Starliner capsule atop an Atlas V rocket for a mission to the International Space Station at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Boeing called off its first crewed launch because of a valve problem on the rocket Monday night.
The two NASA test pilots had just strapped into Boeing's Starliner capsule when the countdown was halted, just two hours before the planned liftoff. A United Launch Alliance engineer, Dillon Rice, said the issue involved an oxygen relief valve on the Centaur upper stage of the company's Atlas rocket.
The Atlas V is operated by United Launch Alliance, which earlier noted that this was to be the 100th flight of the rocket.
There was no immediate word on when the team would try again to launch the test pilots to the International Space Station for a weeklong stay. It was the latest delay for Boeing's first crew flight, on hold for years because of capsule trouble.
Starliner is years behind schedule, a result of work by Boeing and NASA to confirm that the spacecraft was safe to fly that stretched far longer than either had expected. Technical pitfalls included inadequate software testing, corroded propellant valves, flammable tape and a key component in the parachute system that turned out to be weaker than designed.
"In a situation like this, if we see any data signature is not something that we have seen before, then we are just simply not willing to take any chances with what is our most precious payload," Rice said.
Starliner's first test flight, without a crew, in 2019 failed to reach the space station, and Boeing had to repeat the flight.
Within minutes, Boeing's new-style astrovan was back at the launch pad to retrieve Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from their pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Both are experienced NASA astronauts, with Wilmore having spent 167 days in space, and Williams 322 days there.
The pair, along with 750 pounds of supplies, were to arrive to the space station early Wednesday at 12:46 a.m. to begin an eight-day stay onboard before a return flight home as early as May 15 that would have a primary landing site of White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
"This is a test flight. That brings to bear all the things that the title implies," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "Because it is a test flight, we give extra attention. They're checking out a lot of the systems -- the life support, the manual control, all of those things that you want to be checked out."
"That's why we put two test pilots on board, and of course the resumes of Butch and Suni are extensive," he said.
Both astronauts are retired Navy and have flown to space two times, both on the space shuttle and on Russia Soyuz spacecraft with stays onboard the space station. Wilmore is the commander for this flight and joined NASA in 2000. Williams is pilot and joined in 1998.
Starliner had what is known as an instantaneous launch window -- it must launch on time to allow it to catch up with the International Space Station passing above. Weather was 95% favorable for an on-time launch. There are additional opportunities on Friday and Saturday.
NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to ferry astronauts to and from the space station after the shuttle program ended, paying the private companies billions of dollars. SpaceX has been in the orbital taxi business since 2020.
The space agency retired its space shuttles in 2011. For nine years, astronauts could get to the International Space Station only aboard Russia's Soyuz rockets. Then in May 2020, two NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, flew to the space station in SpaceX's Crew Dragon. That capsule has since become the only way to get to orbit from the United States.
Information for this article was contributed by Marcia Dunn of The Associated Press, Kenneth Chang of The New York Times and Richard Tribou of The Orlando Sentinel (TNS).
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