Boeing’s Starliner Test Flight Delayed For Technical Reasons

The highly anticipated launch of Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) of its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew spacecraft was scrubbed today for technical reasons. A new launch date has not been set, but it will not be tomorrow.

OFT-2 is an uncrewed test flight of the Starliner spacecraft, Boeing’s competitor to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. The first OFT in December 2019 did not go as planned and Boeing decided to try again without a crew before putting astronauts on board.

A lot is riding on this flight for Boeing and for NASA. Not only is Boeing’s reputation at stake, but it is working under a fixed price contract and is paying $410 million for this reflight. NASA is eager to have two dissimilar transportation systems to get people to and from the International Space Station (ISS) in case one of them breaks, which is why it fought for two contractors in the first place when convincing Congress to fund the government share of this Public-Private Partnership.

The weather was iffy today, with just a 50-50 chance of favorable conditions. A delay was not unexpected, but for meteorological not technical reasons.

But it was Boeing, not launch services provider United Launch Alliance (ULA), that announced the postponement and soon explained why — “unexpected valve position indications in the propulsion system.”

During pre-launch preparations for the uncrewed test flight of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, Boeing engineers monitoring the health and status of the vehicle detected unexpected valve position indications in the propulsion system. The issue was initially detected during check outs following yesterday’s electrical storms in the region of Kennedy Space Center.

Consequently, the launch of the Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will be postponed. The launch was scheduled for 1:20 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Aug. 3. Boeing and NASA teams are assessing the situation. The team will provide updates regarding a launch attempt on Wednesday, Aug. 4.

“We’re disappointed with today’s outcome and the need to reschedule our Starliner launch,” said John Vollmer, vice president and program manager, Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program. “Human spaceflight is a complex, precise and unforgiving endeavor, and Boeing and NASA teams will take the time they need to ensure the safety and integrity of the spacecraft and the achievement of our mission objectives.”

Updates will be provided by NASA and Boeing as information is analyzed and confirmed.

Later in the day, Boeing said it would have to take the spacecraft back to a processing facility to run more tests to determine what went wrong. Boeing’s Vollmer vowed “we’re going to let the data lead our work” and not launch until everyone is “confident it is ready to fly.”

Following today’s scrubbed launch of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, Boeing is working to understand the source of the unexpected valve position indications in the propulsion system. The issues were first detected during checkouts after electrical storms passed over Kennedy Space Center on Monday.

Engineering teams have now cycled the Service Module propulsion system valves with the Starliner and Atlas V on the launch pad and have ruled out a number of potential causes, including software. Additional time is needed to complete the assessment and, as a result, NASA and Boeing are not proceeding with tomorrow’s launch opportunity.

“We’re going to let the data lead our work,” said John Vollmer, vice president and program manager, Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program. “Our team has worked diligently to ensure the safety and success of this mission, and we will not launch until our vehicle is performing nominally and our teams are confident it is ready to fly.”

Teams will power down the spacecraft this evening, and roll the rocket and spacecraft back to the Vertical Integration Facility on Wednesday for further inspection and testing to inform the next steps.

Updates will be provided by NASA and Boeing as information is available.

Unquestionably it is better to delay a launch than proceed when a problem is detected — “better a scrub than a RUD” as they say, referring to Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly, a wry description of a failure. But it is a disappointment, as Vollmer said.

It could also be a schedule complication. The ISS is a busy place and NASA is getting ready to launch a SpaceX cargo mission later this month that needs to dock at the port Starliner will use. Meanwhile ULA needs to get another Atlas V rocket ready to launch a NASA science mission, Lucy, in October. Lucy is headed to the Trojan asteroids that are in the same orbit around the Sun as Jupiter and must launch during a 21-day window that opens on October 16.

Stay tuned for more updates as they become available.

 

This article has been updated.