Boeing Starliner launch scrubbed at T-3:50
UPDATE: The launch is now scheduled for June 5, 2024 at 10:52 am (Eastern).
For reasons that appeared related to the ground system’s of ULA’s Atlas-5 rocket, the first manned launch of Boeing’s Starliner’s capsule was scrubbed today at T-3:50.
It appears they want to try again tomorrow at 12:03 pm (Eastern), assuming ULA can figure out what happened.
The repeated scrubs and delays that have so far prevented this launch are beginning to remind my of my childhood watching the early NASA launch attempts during the Mercury program. Then, they hadn’t done this before, and were being very careful about everything.
Now, it seems that NASA, ULA, and Boeing are acting the same way, and that is probably because they are very nervous about Starliner and don’t want anything to go wrong.
I had intended to embed the live stream, but slept late (it IS the weekend, y’know). Sorry.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
UPDATE: The launch is now scheduled for June 5, 2024 at 10:52 am (Eastern).
For reasons that appeared related to the ground system’s of ULA’s Atlas-5 rocket, the first manned launch of Boeing’s Starliner’s capsule was scrubbed today at T-3:50.
It appears they want to try again tomorrow at 12:03 pm (Eastern), assuming ULA can figure out what happened.
The repeated scrubs and delays that have so far prevented this launch are beginning to remind my of my childhood watching the early NASA launch attempts during the Mercury program. Then, they hadn’t done this before, and were being very careful about everything.
Now, it seems that NASA, ULA, and Boeing are acting the same way, and that is probably because they are very nervous about Starliner and don’t want anything to go wrong.
I had intended to embed the live stream, but slept late (it IS the weekend, y’know). Sorry.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
My impression has always been that ULA has a very “chatty” launch sequence compared to SpaceX (where you hardly hear a word). Don’t know if that really means ULA uses a more traditional process with more human intervention or not.
I also noticed some time ago that SpaceX Launch Directors have started using the “Go Falcon, Go Dragon, Go XYZ-001” send-off jive, a la ULA.
It’s OK old people are allowed to sleep in on weekends. Oh, Damnit I guess I’m old.
I
ULA tweets a little more information:
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The launch of the @BoeingSpace CST-100 #Starliner on its first crewed flight on an #AtlasV with two @NASA astronauts on board was scrubbed at T-3:50 — 3 minutes, 50 seconds before the scheduled liftoff time of 12:25 p.m. EDT.
ULA scrubbed today’s Crew Flight Test attempt due to an issue with the ground launch sequencer. The system was unsuccessful in verifying the sequencer’s necessary redundancy and the team is evaluating the anomaly.
The team will complete a full assessment and is currently reconfiguring for a 24 hour recycle. We are targeting no earlier than (NET) Sunday, June 2 at 12:03 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Last edited 3:05 PM · Jun 1, 2024
https://x.com/ulalaunch/status/1796981474836541591
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As Tory clarified in the press conference, ULA requires triple redundancy of the launch sequencer computers, and one of the three was not quite where it needed to be. They think they will know for sure what happened, and that it is rectifiable for launch tomorrow, within a few hours.
Anyone remember the final polling when Bob Seik was the Shuttle launch director?
It was “It’s a Go, Bob” then. It turned into a thing where people would say during the polling, “They’re doing the Go Bobs now.”
Ha ! I guess you had to be there.
Inconceivable!
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Hmmmm. I now speculate that this will trigger a delay in the granting of a launch license to SpaceX for IFT4 because if they both launch on the 5th as now scheduled Starliner will be seen as the pathetic geezer tech it really is.
I know that the plan was to have redundant suppliers in case something went wrong with one, but Falcon 9 / Dragon is now supremely proven and SpaceX is rapidly approaching the point of having 2 redundant Man Rated vehicles all by itself, Not to mention Dream Chaser is now imminent as well.
Starliner has suffered numerous and inexcusable development problems (i.e. flammable wiring insulation, (faulty) valves buried where they are not accessible for maintenance, and parachute issues at least), while Starship is being designed to truly take us where No Man Has Gone Before.
The optics here are devastating for Boeing and NASA.
I think the launch for today sinday June 2 was scrubbed also.
No word on when it will happen.
Sunday
Why did the dinosaurs go extinct?
Because they put Boeing in charge of their asteroid defense program.
SpaceX has launched 16 Falcon 9 rockets since Boeing rolled the Starliner to the launchpad on April 26th.