Space News & Blog Articles

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was fueled for launch May 6, 2024 for the Starliner Crew Test Flight. Image: NASA TV.

An Atlas 5 rocket carrying astronauts for the first time was fueled for blastoff Monday night to boost Boeing’s long-delayed Starliner crew ferry ship into orbit for its first piloted test flight. But trouble with a valve in the rocket’s upper stage forced mission managers to order a scrub just two hours before takeoff.

It was a frustrating disappointment for commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams, who were in the process of strapping in for launch when the scrub was announced. The moment brought to mind one of Wilmore’s favorite sayings: “you’d rather be on the ground wishing you were in space than in space and wishing you were on the ground.”

It was not immediately clear when Boeing and rocket-builder United Launch Alliance might be able to make another attempt, but engineers will first have to figure out what caused an oxygen relief valve in the rocket’s Centaur upper stage to “chatter” during the late stages of fueling and what might be required to fix it. If the valve has to be replaced, ULA might have to roll the rocket back to its processing facility for repairs.

Already running years behind schedule and more than a billion dollars over budget, the Starliner is Boeing’s answer to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, an already operational spacecraft that has carried 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and civilians into orbit in 13 flights, 12 of them to the space station.

NASA funded development of both spacecraft to ensure the agency would be able to launch crews to the outpost even if one company’s ferry ship was grounded for any reason. While it’s taken Boeing much longer than expected to ready their ship for crew flights, all systems appeared go for launch from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:34 p.m. EDT.

An issue with ULA's Atlas V rocket scrubbed the historic 1st crewed launch attempt of Boeing's Starliner capsule on May 6. May 10 is the earliest possible launch date now.

What has one horn, two crewmates and shares a name with its ride into orbit? "Calypso," the plush sequined narwhal that is flying on the crew flight test of "Calypso," Boeing's CST-100 Starliner.

Two asteroids are expected to make close but safe approaches to Earth this week, and you can watch them live.

The video gives an insight into the energetic events that transfer energy and plasma into the solar corona that ultimately drives the solar wind.

NASA and Boeing are working together to send the first astronauts to space on Starliner on May 6. Among the Mission Control support team is Kennedy Space Center's chief engineer.

SpaceX revealed its new spacesuit designed for Crew Dragon passengers to unbuckle and float outside the spacecraft.

SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites today (May 6), the company's 46th orbital mission of the year already.

NASA astronauts will ride a United Launch Alliance Atlas V for the 1st time on May 6. Getting the long-running rocket ready for humans took thousands of checks.

A recently detected sunspot region unleashed a powerful X4.5 solar flare early Monday morning, causing radio blackouts throughout parts of the Eastern Hemisphere.

The International Space Station, the largest and brightest object now orbiting Earth, will provide excellent views for skywatchers across much of the Northern Hemisphere for much of May.

A patch created to honor Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a U.S. spacecraft, features a geometric pattern representing the glow of her space shuttle lifting off into the night sky.

The launch of astronauts on a Boeing spacecraft will mark a first for the company, but will also bring human spaceflight back to a rocket and launch site after more than 50 years.

Many people travel to broaden their horizons; there's no broader horizon than the cosmos.

The post The Broadest Horizon appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

A Falcon 9 stands ready for a Starlink mission at Cape Canaveral’s pad 40. File photo: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

Update: SpaceX has pushed the T-0 liftoff time to near the end of the launch window.

SpaceX is gearing up for the first of two Starlink missions from Florida, as Boeing gets ready for the first piloted launch of its Starliner capsule. A Falcon 9 rocket will launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday, followed by another on Tuesday from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

Liftoff on Monday is scheduled for 2:14 p.m. EDT (1814 UTC). Meteorologists at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station say there is a 90-percent chance of acceptable conditions for launch, with a small risk of cumulus cloud development being the only concern.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage with commentary starting about an hour before launch.

The Falcon 9 first stage assigned to the Starlink 6-57 mission will be making its 15th flight. The booster, which has the tail number 1069, first flew in December 2021 on a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. In addition to making 10 previous Starlink deliveries, it launched the Hotbird 13F and SES 18 and 19 telecommunications satellites and a batch of satellites for OneWeb’s high speed internet service. It most recently flew a month ago on Apr. 5 for the Starlink 6-47 mission.

Boeing’s Starliner capsule sits atop the Atlas 5 rocket at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station a day before its planned launch. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now.

Years behind schedule and more than a billion dollars over budget, Boeing’s Starliner capsule is finally poised for its first piloted launch Monday, a critical test flight carrying two veteran astronauts to the International Space Station and in so doing, demonstrate an alternative to SpaceX’s already operational Crew Dragon.

While SpaceX has launched 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and civilians to orbit in 13 piloted Crew Dragon flights since May 2020, Boeing has been bedeviled by multiple technical problems that required extensive re-work — and an additional unpiloted test flight — to resolve.

But mission managers say all the known issues have been corrected, multiple other upgrades and improvements have been implemented and the spacecraft has been thoroughly tested to verify it is finally ready to safely carry astronauts to and from the space station.

No one is more eager for launch than the Starliner’s crew, both active-duty NASA astronauts.

“I have full confidence in the management that makes the decisions that filter down to the operations team, full confidence on the NASA side and the Boeing side,” said mission commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore. “There have been some issues in the past. That’s the past. That is not now.”