The long-awaited first crewed mission of Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft will be delayed for more than a week after engineers identified an issue that halted launch preparations on Monday. <\/p>\n
Starliner\u2019s next opportunity to lift off on its maiden voyage from NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida is at 6:16 p.m. ET on May 17. <\/p>\n
Veteran NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore had already taken their seats aboard the Starliner capsule when the operations team called for a scrub Monday night about two hours before launch. <\/p>\n
The decision came after the United Launch Alliance team, which assembled the Atlas V rocket that Starliner will ride to space, identified an issue with a valve on the second stage, or upper portion, of the rocket. <\/p>\n
Occasionally, valves can get into a position where they start to \u201cbuzz\u201d by oscillating, or opening and closing rapidly, said Tory Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance. Some buzzing is OK, but too much could cause the valve to fail, Bruno added. <\/p>\n
After safely removing Williams and Wilmore from the Starliner capsule Monday night, the United Launch Alliance team experimented with opening and closing the source of the buzz, a pressure regulation valve on the liquid oxygen tank of the rocket\u2019s upper stage. More oscillations occurred during the process to remove fuel from the rocket. <\/p>\n
The team conducted a thorough review of the valve on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cAfter evaluating the valve history, data signatures from the launch attempt, and assessing the risks relative to continued use, the ULA team determined the valve exceeded its qualification and mission managers agreed to remove and replace the valve,\u201d according to an update NASA shared. <\/p>\n
The decision to replace the valve means that the rocket will need to be rolled back from the launchpad on Wednesday and into the Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. <\/p>\n
While replacing the valve, the team will also conduct leak checks and other functional checkouts to ensure the rocket is ready for a potential May 17 launch attempt. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Wilmore and Williams will stay in crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center and remain in quarantine before the launch to protect their health. <\/p>\n
Before the valve issue arose, Starliner \u2014 which Boeing designed to rival SpaceX\u2019s prolific Crew Dragon capsule \u2014 was set to take off for its inaugural crewed test run at 10:34 p.m. ET Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. <\/p>\n
This mission, dubbed the Crew Flight Test, could be the final major milestone before NASA deems Boeing\u2019s spacecraft ready for routine operations as part of the federal agency\u2019s Commercial Crew Program. The Starliner would join SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon in NASA\u2019s push to collaborate with private industry partners, expanding US options for ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station. <\/p>\n
Williams and Wilmore have each ventured to space on two previous journeys aboard the NASA space shuttle and Russian Soyuz missions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re checking out a lot of the systems: the life support, the manual control,\u201d NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a Friday news conference. \u201cThat\u2019s why we put two test pilots on board \u2014 and of course the r\u00e9sum\u00e9s of Butch and Suni are extensive.\u201d <\/p>\n
The launch would mark only the sixth maiden voyage of a crewed spacecraft in US history, Nelson noted: \u201cIt started with Mercury, then with Gemini, then with Apollo, the space shuttle, then (SpaceX\u2019s) Dragon \u2014 and now Starliner.\u201d <\/p>\n
Williams will also become the first woman to join such a mission. <\/p>\n
If all goes according to plan following the launch, the spacecraft \u2014 carrying the astronauts \u2014 will break away from the Atlas V rocket after reaching orbit and begin firing its own engines. The Starliner will then spend more than 24 hours gradually making its way to the space station. <\/p>\n
Williams and Wilmore are set to spend about a week aboard the orbiting laboratory, joining the seven astronauts and cosmonauts already on board, while the Starliner remains docked outside. <\/p>\n
The two will then return home aboard the same Starliner capsule, which is expected to parachute to a landing at one of several designated locations across the southwestern United States. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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