This Week in Launch: Third week’s the charm for Starliner CFT?

This week will be the third week in a row the headline launch is supposed to be Boeing’s Starliner Crewed Flight Test. SpaceX is also planning another banger of a week with three launches and Rocket Lab shows up again.

This week’s launches:

• May 21 (Tuesday)
  • ExPace | Kuaizhou 11 | Unknown Payload | 12:10 A.M. ET
    • Site 95A, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China
• May 22 (Wednesday)
  • Rocket Lab | Electron | Ready, Aim, PREFIRE | 3:15 A.M. ET
    • LC-1B, Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | NROL-146 | 1:00 A.M. PT
    • SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-62 | 10:33 P.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• May 23 (Thursday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-63 | 6:45 P.M. ET
    • LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
• May 25 (Saturday)
  • ULA | Atlas V N22 | Boeing Starliner CFT | 3:09 P.M. ET
    • SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida

Starliner continued delays

Originally delayed for a faulty valve on the Atlas V’s Centaur upper stage, the issue is now with Starliner’s service module. Discovered during data review of the scrubbed launch attempt on May 6, a helium leak was found in the service module resulting in work needing to be done before another launch attempt.

The crew of CFT, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, remain in quarantine but returned to Houston after the scrub.

The last update didn’t give any concrete answers as to what Boeing plans to do but the company was still reviewing data to better understand what is causing the leak. Usually that isn’t a good sign for a reliable new launch date but the Starliner remains stacked on the Atlas V rocket so unless that changes, Saturday’s launch data is still in play.

If Starliner would be removed from ULA’s Vertical Integration Facility, it would likely be moved over back to Boeing’s facility over at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. This would likely result in a delay of a few weeks as teams work on the service module.