A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeings CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is seen on the launch pad illuminated by spotlights at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The image was handled Test, Sunday, May 5, 2024, ahead of NASAs Boeing Crew Flight. Credit: NASA/Joel KowskyNASAs Boeing Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station has actually been postponed to no earlier than May 17 due to a faulty valve in the Atlas V rockets upper stage. The United Launch Alliance will change the valve after discovering issues during prelaunch checks. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams stay in quarantine at NASA Kennedy, waiting for the next launch opportunity.NASAs Boeing Crew Flight Test now is targeted to release no earlier than 6:16 p.m. EDT Friday, May 17, to the International Space Station. Following a comprehensive information examine finished on Tuesday, ULA (United Launch Alliance) decided to replace a pressure guideline valve on the liquid oxygen tank on the Atlas V rockets Centaur upper stage.ULA plans to roll the rocket, with Boeings Starliner spacecraft, back to its Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Wednesday, May 8, to start the replacement. The ULA team will carry out leakage checks and practical checkouts in assistance of the next launch attempt.The oscillating behavior of the valve during prelaunch operations, ultimately resulted in mission teams calling a launch scrub on May 6. After the landing crew and astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams securely left from Space Launch Complex-41, the ULA team effectively commanded the valve closed and the oscillations were temporarily moistened. The oscillations then re-occurred twice during fuel removal operations. After examining the valve history, data signatures from the launch effort, and evaluating the threats relative to continued use, the ULA group identified the valve surpassed its certification and mission managers concurred to get rid of and change the valve.NASA, Boeing, and United Launch Alliance officials discussed information of a scrub choice made ahead of the very first launch attempt for NASAs Boeing Crew Flight Test. Participants in the briefing consisted of Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, NASAs Space Operations Mission Directorate; Steve Stich, manager, NASAs Commercial Crew Program; Tory Bruno, president and CEO, United Launch Alliance; Dana Weigel, supervisor, NASAs International Space Station Program and Mark Nappi, vice president and program supervisor, Boeings Commercial Crew Program. Credit: NASA/Chris ChamberlandMission supervisors went over the details causing the choice to scrub the May 6 launch chance during a news conference (see video above) shortly after the scrub call at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.Wilmore and Williams will stay in crew quarters at NASA Kennedy in quarantine till the next launch chance. The duo will be the very first to release aboard Starliner to the spaceport station as part of the companys Commercial Crew Program.
