NASA confirms June 5th as new launch date for Starliner
NASA yesterday evening confirmed that the agency, ULA, and Boeing are now targeting June 5, 2024 at 10:52 am (Eastern) for the launch of the first manned launch of Boeing’s Starliner capsule carrying two astronauts to ISS for a two week checkout mission.
Technicians and engineers with ULA (United Launch Alliance) worked overnight and on Sunday to assess the ground support equipment at the launch pad that encountered issues during the countdown and scrubbed the June 1 launch attempt. The ULA team identified an issue with a single ground power supply within one of the three redundant chassis that provides power to a subset of computer cards controlling various system functions, including the card responsible for the stable replenishment topping valves for the Centaur upper stage. All three of these chassis are required to enter the terminal phase of the launch countdown to ensure crew safety.
On Sunday, the chassis containing the faulty ground power unit was removed, visually inspected, and replaced with a spare chassis. No signs of physical damage were observed. A full failure analysis of the power unit will be performed to better understand root cause. Meanwhile, ULA has completed functional checkouts of the new chassis and the cards, and all hardware is performing normally.
These kinds of technical issues happen too often on ULA launches. Company engineers always fix them, but it never appears they fix them permanently. Too often on launches they pop up again, causing more scrubs.
The goal should be to fix them so they never pop up again, and your launches can begin to launch reliably, on time. And we know it can be done, because SpaceX has done it.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
NASA yesterday evening confirmed that the agency, ULA, and Boeing are now targeting June 5, 2024 at 10:52 am (Eastern) for the launch of the first manned launch of Boeing’s Starliner capsule carrying two astronauts to ISS for a two week checkout mission.
Technicians and engineers with ULA (United Launch Alliance) worked overnight and on Sunday to assess the ground support equipment at the launch pad that encountered issues during the countdown and scrubbed the June 1 launch attempt. The ULA team identified an issue with a single ground power supply within one of the three redundant chassis that provides power to a subset of computer cards controlling various system functions, including the card responsible for the stable replenishment topping valves for the Centaur upper stage. All three of these chassis are required to enter the terminal phase of the launch countdown to ensure crew safety.
On Sunday, the chassis containing the faulty ground power unit was removed, visually inspected, and replaced with a spare chassis. No signs of physical damage were observed. A full failure analysis of the power unit will be performed to better understand root cause. Meanwhile, ULA has completed functional checkouts of the new chassis and the cards, and all hardware is performing normally.
These kinds of technical issues happen too often on ULA launches. Company engineers always fix them, but it never appears they fix them permanently. Too often on launches they pop up again, causing more scrubs.
The goal should be to fix them so they never pop up again, and your launches can begin to launch reliably, on time. And we know it can be done, because SpaceX has done it.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
They seemed to happen less frequently when ULA was launching an Atlas V every 6 to 8 weeks rather than once a year.
I suspect that at least part of their problem is the collapse of their launch cadence.
A launch in Vandenberg tonight.
VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. —
Vandenberg Guardians and Airmen will support two separate operational test launches of an Air Force Global Strike Command unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile off the Vandenberg Test Range scheduled for the first week of June.
The first test is scheduled for June 4 from 12:01 a.m. to June 4, 2024, 6:01 a.m., Pacific Time from north Vandenberg.
The second test is scheduled for June 6 from 12:01 a.m. to June 6, 6:01 a.m., Pacific Time from north Vandenberg.
https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3790696/unarmed-minuteman-iii-test-launch-to-showcase-readiness-of-us-nuclear-forces-sa/
A dangerous thing considering early warning systems in Russia were just destroyed. Trust is not high, will they believe us that they are unarmed?
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, Richard M. And similarly, they are probably reluctant to invest in the refresh of the Ground Support Equipment of a booster like Atlas that is at end of life!!
And I read this morning that if there is another delay they will be up against a battery-life expiry that will take about 10 days to correct.
Two Minuteman launches in quick succession could mean a demonstration of extreme accuracy… the kind that might be required to say, blow up a huge dam without having to use nukes?
Mr Z, it is fixed permanently.
On that booster, it will never break again.
Now if they were re-using boosters, that would be another story.
They are still in the mind set that the equipment only has to work correctly once.
I would not fly in that thing. Nope not at all.
From the linked article, “NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams, ….remain in quarantine”.
Poor astronauts, at least they have each other.
Those Minuteman launches are consistent with routine “Glory Trips”, where they pull an operational missile out of its Northern Plains silo at “random”, remove the physics package, and the missile – with its maintenance and launch crews – goes down to Vandenburg where its entourage installs it in a silo there, loads it up with instrumentation instead of a physics package, and launches it to Kwajalein Atoll. It’s a sample used to evaluate the condition of the missiles as they continue to age, and a training diversion from the routine of a stressful yet boring job for the crews.
Having two together might be unusual, but the article mentioned that one test launch had been delayed in February; looks like they are just playing catch-up.