After analyzing data following a launch scrub Monday, United Launch Alliance managers decided to haul the Atlas 5 rocket carrying Boeing’s Starliner astronaut ferry ship back to its processing facility to replace a suspect valve, delaying another launch try to at least May 17, NASA said in a blog post Tuesday.The new “no-earlier-than” launch target from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — 6:16 p.m. EDT a week from Friday — will give engineers more time to carry out the valve repair while setting up a rendezvous with the International Space Station that fits into the U.S. Eastern Range launch schedule, which coordinates all rocket flights from the East Coast. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule stands poised atop pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. After a launch scrub Monday, the rocket will be hauled back to a processing facility where engineers can replace a suspect oxygen pressure relief valve in Centaur upper stage. The next launch attempt is targeted for no earlier than May 17. / Credit: United Launch AllianceThe Starliner, Boeing’s long-delayed answer to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, was grounded Monday just two hours before its planned launch on its first piloted test flight to the space station. On board were NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams.The culprit: a pressure relief valve in the rocket’s Centaur upper stage liquid oxygen plumbing that failed to seat properly during the final stages of propellant loading. The valve repeatedly “chattered” as it attempted to seal, rapidly opening and closing so fast engineers at the launch pad reported an audible hum.ULA engineers could have carried out a procedure to force the valve in place and likely would have done so for a normal satellite launch. But conservative flight rules in place for the Starliner flight ruled out any changes to the “fueled state” of the rocket while the ast …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnAfter analyzing data following a launch scrub Monday, United Launch Alliance managers decided to haul the Atlas 5 rocket carrying Boeing’s Starliner astronaut ferry ship back to its processing facility to replace a suspect valve, delaying another launch try to at least May 17, NASA said in a blog post Tuesday.The new “no-earlier-than” launch target from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — 6:16 p.m. EDT a week from Friday — will give engineers more time to carry out the valve repair while setting up a rendezvous with the International Space Station that fits into the U.S. Eastern Range launch schedule, which coordinates all rocket flights from the East Coast. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule stands poised atop pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. After a launch scrub Monday, the rocket will be hauled back to a processing facility where engineers can replace a suspect oxygen pressure relief valve in Centaur upper stage. The next launch attempt is targeted for no earlier than May 17. / Credit: United Launch AllianceThe Starliner, Boeing’s long-delayed answer to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, was grounded Monday just two hours before its planned launch on its first piloted test flight to the space station. On board were NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams.The culprit: a pressure relief valve in the rocket’s Centaur upper stage liquid oxygen plumbing that failed to seat properly during the final stages of propellant loading. The valve repeatedly “chattered” as it attempted to seal, rapidly opening and closing so fast engineers at the launch pad reported an audible hum.ULA engineers could have carried out a procedure to force the valve in place and likely would have done so for a normal satellite launch. But conservative flight rules in place for the Starliner flight ruled out any changes to the “fueled state” of the rocket while the ast …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
