Watching the first manned launch of Boeing’s Starliner capsule
UPDATE: Launch scrubbed due to an issue on the upper stage. When a new launch date is announced I will put up a new post.
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The first manned launch of Boeing’s Starliner capsule is presently targeting a 10:34 pm (Eastern) launch tonight from Cape Canaveral, lifting off on ULA’s Atlas-5 rocket.
The flight will carry two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, and will dock with ISS a little over 24 hours later for a week of testing docked to the station.
The live stream for tonight’s launch is embedded below. Though that coverage will include several prelaunch and post launch press conferences, the key coverage of the launch itself will begin at 6:30 pm (Eastern) on May 6th, about four hours before the launch itself. It will also include the capsule’s docking with ISS on May 8th. Most of the prelaunch coverage will be NASA PR, even though the only time NASA is participating significantly is when ISS is involved. Boeing is operating the capsule and ULA is operating the launch.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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UPDATE: Launch scrubbed due to an issue on the upper stage. When a new launch date is announced I will put up a new post.
———————–
The first manned launch of Boeing’s Starliner capsule is presently targeting a 10:34 pm (Eastern) launch tonight from Cape Canaveral, lifting off on ULA’s Atlas-5 rocket.
The flight will carry two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, and will dock with ISS a little over 24 hours later for a week of testing docked to the station.
The live stream for tonight’s launch is embedded below. Though that coverage will include several prelaunch and post launch press conferences, the key coverage of the launch itself will begin at 6:30 pm (Eastern) on May 6th, about four hours before the launch itself. It will also include the capsule’s docking with ISS on May 8th. Most of the prelaunch coverage will be NASA PR, even though the only time NASA is participating significantly is when ISS is involved. Boeing is operating the capsule and ULA is operating the launch.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Speaking of, Eric Berger just put up a deep(ish) dive into what went wrong with Starliner development:
“So what happened? How did Boeing, the gold standard in human spaceflight for decades, fall so far behind on crew? This story, based largely on interviews with unnamed current and former employees of Boeing and contractors who worked on Starliner, attempts to provide some answers.”
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/the-surprise-is-not-that-boeing-lost-commercial-crew-but-that-it-finished-at-all/
It makes for grim reading.
The article did not really probe into the development of software, except to say that no end-to-end test was done. It would have been interesting to understand how the development was outsourced, for example.
https://x.com/thegat0rd/status/1787562210648064497?s=46
Approx 9:00 pm Eastern time. Scrub. An oxygen relief valve on Centaur 2nd stage not performing (whatever that means exactly) at specification.
Defuel and checkout.
Seems like this could be multiple days to weeks delay depending on what they find.
Post scrub news conference by NASA, ULA and Boeing link below.
Tory Bruno CEO of ULA is very impressive in his comfort handling technical concepts compared to most CEO’s. I am looking at YOU Boeing.
He explains, a couple of hours after the scrub, what happened and what is needed to be done. Careful NOT to make predictions.
It seems to me tho’ if they have to swap out relief valves on the Centaur upper stage, it is going to be at least a week or two. NASA ISS Director, made the point that ISS docking schedule has been simplified and cleared for most of the summer in anticipation of this test flight.
Fast forward to listening to Bruno, he has the meat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48ZhGW2XBY4