Starliner launch scrubbed; no launch date yet set
For reasons that have not yet been revealed, ULA scrubbed today’s unmanned demo test flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule just prior to launch, rescheduling the launch for tomorrow.
The launch tomorrow wiill occur at 12:57 am (Eastern).
UPDATE: It appears the scrub occurred because of a valve issue in the propulsion system of Boeing’s Starliner capsule.
“During pre-launch preparations for the uncrewed test flight of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, Boeing engineers monitoring the health and status of the vehicle detected unexpected valve position indications in the propulsion system,” the company said in a statement. “The issue was initially detected during check outs following yesterday’s electrical storms in the region of Kennedy Space Center.”
…The propulsion system valves in question are inside the Starliner’s service module, which has an array of rocket thrusters designed to propel the spacecraft away from its launcher during an in-flight emergency. Other thrusters on the service module are used for in-orbit maneuvers and spacecraft pointing control.
Boeing cannot afford more failures during this second demo flight. The company has been plagued with numerous debilitating technical failures during the past four years, from Starliner to its airlines. Right now the failure to get Starliner operational is losing them business in the emerging orbital tourist market. They need to get it working, and working reliably.
UPDATE: They have decided to cancel the launch plans for tomorrow, to roll the rocket back into the assembly building so they can do more tests on the capsule’s service module where the troublesome valves are.
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For reasons that have not yet been revealed, ULA scrubbed today’s unmanned demo test flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule just prior to launch, rescheduling the launch for tomorrow.
The launch tomorrow wiill occur at 12:57 am (Eastern).
UPDATE: It appears the scrub occurred because of a valve issue in the propulsion system of Boeing’s Starliner capsule.
“During pre-launch preparations for the uncrewed test flight of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, Boeing engineers monitoring the health and status of the vehicle detected unexpected valve position indications in the propulsion system,” the company said in a statement. “The issue was initially detected during check outs following yesterday’s electrical storms in the region of Kennedy Space Center.”
…The propulsion system valves in question are inside the Starliner’s service module, which has an array of rocket thrusters designed to propel the spacecraft away from its launcher during an in-flight emergency. Other thrusters on the service module are used for in-orbit maneuvers and spacecraft pointing control.
Boeing cannot afford more failures during this second demo flight. The company has been plagued with numerous debilitating technical failures during the past four years, from Starliner to its airlines. Right now the failure to get Starliner operational is losing them business in the emerging orbital tourist market. They need to get it working, and working reliably.
UPDATE: They have decided to cancel the launch plans for tomorrow, to roll the rocket back into the assembly building so they can do more tests on the capsule’s service module where the troublesome valves are.
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.
So was the vehicle/rocket or tower struck by lightning? Nobody is saying anything. Just that problem showed up when they tested after the storm. When was the last time that these tests were done and the system passed?
Not exactly a resilient/robust design…
I certainly hope that NASA isn’t paying Boeing anything for this test launch.
Doug,
Boeing is paying for this flight due to the problems of the first test.
Doug Booker wrote: “I certainly hope that NASA isn’t paying Boeing anything for this test launch.”
It is a fixed price contract. The possibility, or probability, of problems like this arising is why the contracts cost so much more money than ordinary operations would make seem reasonable. There have been so few different models of manned spacecraft (eight in the 20th century, including the X-15) that this is not a robust industry, not one in which all the unknown unknowns are known. So far in this century, there have been only four manned spacecraft flown (counting the unmanned Starliner but considering the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft as a Russian Soyuz). The contracts have some margin built in to handle problems like this, so if the problems can be avoided then the company is rewarded by an extra profit.
Profit is the reward for increased efficiency.
Doug Booker: See this earlier post on BtB:
Boeing budgets for extra unmanned Starliner test
Boeing is paying the tab, as it is their problem to solve.
I honestly can’t believe that you all actually believe that. See the Funding section in Wikipedia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_the_Commercial_Crew_Program
It shows the funding and that Boeing got an additional 287.2 million more than their “fixed” price of 4.2 billion. Yes they got additional funding amounting to more than 10% of the total amount that SpaceX got!
So you really think they aren’t going to nickel and dime more out of our pockets? Of course they can just pad the Artemis cost plus contract.
Doug Booker: You are mistaken. Yes, $287 million of extra money was funnelled improperly to Boeing. See this November 2019 Behind the Black post: Inspector general slams NASA’s management for bonus payments to Boeing.
However, NASA agreed to give that extra money to Boeing in 2017.
The failed demo flight occurred in December 2019. Thus, that extra money had nothing to do with paying for the second flight, nor has NASA given Boeing any extra money since. Boeing wrote off $410 million to pay for this second unmanned flight, and has thus paid for it entirely.
Another review of the scrub.
I would quote the article, but Bob has standards on this site! :)
https://gizmodo.com/launch-of-boeing-s-starliner-delayed-indefinitely-due-t-1847421543
Gary: Yeah, I just wish others had similar standards. To be crude on purpose is to be uncivilized. That so many people like being crude and uncivilized baffles me.
Barbarians will not get to the Moon or Mars. Keep behaving like this and your rockets and spaceships will all function like Boeing’s.