Starliner CFT

Over the weekend, NASA made its decision that Boeing’s Starliner would not be safe enough to risk returning its crew from space. Instead, the agency has decided the two astronauts who flew up to space on it will return with Crew-9 on SpaceX’s Dragon early next year.

In an update to the media this week, NASA reiterated many points it said in an earlier update as it works through more data before making a final decision on the Starliner CFT spacecraft. For now, Starliner’s crew are in limbo as to what how and when they will return home.

NASA‘s mood toward’s the safety of returning Boeing‘s Crewed Flight Test crew back on Starliner has switched from steadfast support to plans to use SpaceX Dragon for a return flight. However, this has caused drastic changes to both SpaceX‘s and NASA’s launched schedules using its Crew Dragon spacecraft.

NASA held a press conference yesterday to talk about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and Starliner. In attendance were Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate; Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program; Bill Spetch, operations integrations manager; Emily Nelson, chief flight director at JSC; and Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program element.

Over a 24 hour process, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft inched their way to rendezvous with the International Space Station Thursday. In typical Starliner fashion, it wasn’t perfect, but the crew arrived to the station safe and are ready to get some work done.

NASA and Boeing teams are targeting a 12:15 P.M. ET docking of Starliner with the International Space Station after a successful liftoff Wednesday morning.

Wednesday morning Boeing, ULA, and NASA once again convened to attempt to launch the Starliner CFT mission with astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams onboard. With a clean countdown, ULA’s Atlas V successfully delivered Starliner to space, however, two additional helium leaks have been found while in orbit, but docking is planned to continue unchanged.

After about a month of delays due to a helium leak and review of its propulsion system, Boeing and NASA are ready to launch the final test flight of the Commercial Crew Program, Starliner Crewed Flight Test.

ULA has completed repairs to Atlas V‘s ground launch sequencer, which was the cause of Saturday’s last-minute abort to Boeing‘s first crewed liftoff. Starliner’s CFT mission has been rescheduled for Wednesday, June 5 at 10:52 A.M. ET.

It seems like this is again not Starliner’s week, as NASA and Boeing pushing the launch of the first crewed Starliner spaceflight back from the May 25th launch date. The new launch date is no earlier than June 1, one week later. However what is going on with Starliner is less than clear.

Boeing announced Tuesday morning that they, ULA, and NASA are now no longer targeting a launch for this Friday of Boeing‘s first crewed Starliner mission. Due to a helium leak on the Starliner’s service module, the launch is slated for no earlier than May 21.

After an extremely smooth countdown and crew egress, ULA controllers called a scrub Starliner’s Crewed Flight Test a few hours before planned liftoff due to a misbehaving valve. While the problem is a known issue by ULA, it will take a few days to trouble shoot, meaning the next launch attempt won’t be until at least Friday.

By the end of the week the International Space Station will be fully ready to support Boeing Starliner’s Crewed Test Flight with an opening on the forward docking port on the station’s Harmony Module. This will be completed with the reshuffling of two SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Last week Boeing and ULA rolled a Starliner spacecraft from the former’s facilities on Kennedy Space Center to the latter’s launch site on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. With that, final checkouts are underway before two NASA astronauts climb inside and fly it to the ISS and back.

It looked like Boeing would have a fantastic April with the launch of its first crewed flight of the Starliner spacecraft. However, now it seems like we’re going to have to wait until July before we see this milestone launch from the company to the International Space Station.

In August, Boeing attempted to launch its second Orbital Flight Test mission to the International Space Station but was plagued by valve malfunctions. Since then, Boeing and NASA have been giving updates on where they are with returning to launch.

While this week has been devoid of launches, it was far from an uneventful week in space news. We’ve had spacewalks occurring at the ISS, the arrival of ULA’s Atlas V booster for CFT, and brand new exclusive updates on SpaceX’s newest droneship.

United Launch Alliance loaded an Atlas V Booster and Dual Engine Centaur onto their Rocketship boat over the weekend. Its destination? Florida. This isn’t just any ordinary Atlas V though, this will be the first one to carry crew to space. The Boeing Starliner Crewed Flight Test (CFT) is still expected NET late 2021. However, a second Orbital Flight Test is needed.

UPDATE: ULA Begins OFT-2 Booster Stacking

UPDATE: RL-10C not to be used for upcoming Atlas missions

An Atlas V booster and Dual Engine Centaur have arrived at the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center (ASOC) after being offloaded from the Rocketship transport vessel. Spaceflight media was invited to attend the event to provide coverage. This is the third human-rated Atlas V rocket to be delivered to the Cape, with the first being stacked ahead of the Orbital Flight Test 2.