Atlas 5 man-rated upgrades approved by NASA for Starliner launches
Capitalism in space: ULA announced this week that its Atlas 5 rocket has passed a NASA review that now approves the design changes necessary to allow that rocket to launch Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule.
“Design Certification Review is a significant milestone that completes the design phase of the program, paving the way to operations,” said Barb Egan, ULA Commercial Crew program manager. “Hardware and software final qualification tests are underway, as well as a major integrated test series, including structural loads. Future tests will involve launch vehicle hardware, such as jettison tests, acoustic tests, and, finally, a pad abort test in White Sands, New Mexico.”
Launch vehicle production is currently on track for an uncrewed August 2018 Orbital Flight Test (OFT).
The schedule to make that August flight happen still remains tight, but this approval brings it one step closer.
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Capitalism in space: ULA announced this week that its Atlas 5 rocket has passed a NASA review that now approves the design changes necessary to allow that rocket to launch Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule.
“Design Certification Review is a significant milestone that completes the design phase of the program, paving the way to operations,” said Barb Egan, ULA Commercial Crew program manager. “Hardware and software final qualification tests are underway, as well as a major integrated test series, including structural loads. Future tests will involve launch vehicle hardware, such as jettison tests, acoustic tests, and, finally, a pad abort test in White Sands, New Mexico.”
Launch vehicle production is currently on track for an uncrewed August 2018 Orbital Flight Test (OFT).
The schedule to make that August flight happen still remains tight, but this approval brings it one step closer.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. 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.
It’s a bit unfair to all companies involved, now and future, that there will be a loss of life one day and the other companies will use it against them. Only possibly restrained by the fact they may get their turn. I hope I’m being overly cynical?
Finally! This should’ve been done so long ago. Atlas V, I read, has 73 out of 74 launch successes, and the partially failed one had its upper stage firing four seconds too late or early, only marginally lowering the lifetime of its payload. Big space has one advantage and that is track record for launch reliability. I doubt that Boeing, Lockmart or Arianespace can compete head on with low cost launch technology anytime soon. I think they should keep their proven launchers flying for longer than now seems anticipated. And crew them in order to motivate the extra hundred million or so per trip. Ariane V launching JWST, that’s their market. Big budget projects where another hundred million doesn’t matter anymore, they just want a rocket that has never failed.
Why does Boeing not have to do an inflight abort test?
+Doug: The best explanation I’ve found is: https://www.space.com/34086-spacex-boeing-test-crew-vehicle-abort-systems.html
> … However, Boeing will not perform a flight-abort test, said former NASA astronaut Chris Ferguson, now Boeing’s director of crew and mission operations.
> “We looked very early on at where we could get the most testing value,” Ferguson said, and “made the conscious decision” that the company could certify the vehicle in a wind tunnel and did not need to conduct a flight-abort test. He added that “we consider the pad-abort test more robust and challenging” and said the company is currently conducting many abort-system tests in a wind tunnel.
> Kathy Lueders, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, confirmed that NASA’s safety thresholds did not specifically require an in-flight test of the abort system. The guidelines did require that the companies “show that they have the abort reliability that we needed to have. And so we provided them the ability to propose their own strategy for how they met that, and both currently are meeting the requirements.”
Would SpaceX us an old F9 for the in flight abort test or will they use a new F9 Block V?
The former wouldn’t represent too much of a cost and SpaceX is probably wondering how they will get rid of their old stock.
It is nice to see that all of these companies are finishing up this program and will finally start flinging people.
wodun,
It was my understanding that SpaceX won’t be doing an in-flight abort test. Has this changed or am I mistaken?