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.
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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.
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
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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.
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:
_____
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
__
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.