Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.The long-awaited first crewed mission of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will be delayed for more than a week after engineers identified an issue that halted launch preparations on Monday.Starliner’s 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.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.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.Occasionally, valves can get into a position where they start to “buzz” 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.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’s upper stage. More oscillations occurred during the process to remove fuel from the rocket.The team conducted a thorough review of the valve on Tuesday.“After 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 qualificat …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnSign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.The long-awaited first crewed mission of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will be delayed for more than a week after engineers identified an issue that halted launch preparations on Monday.Starliner’s 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.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.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.Occasionally, valves can get into a position where they start to “buzz” 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.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’s upper stage. More oscillations occurred during the process to remove fuel from the rocket.The team conducted a thorough review of the valve on Tuesday.“After 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 qualificat …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
