It turns out those "Well-Sourced Rumors" about the Starliner decisions got a really big, important thing right. NASA announced today that the Crew 9 launch has been pushed back to No Earlier Than September 24.
The agency quotes a few major reasons for this delay. Let me start out with what I think everyone knows. We know about the engine testing going on both on the Starliner in orbit and on the engines from another Starliner capsule being tested at White Sands Missile Range. The engines failing on the way to the ISS and the helium leaks they had before launch are the big problems.
They also note what I think of as second order effects: they're not as big a deal as those two, but they add arguments for one option or another.
The Crew-9 launch adjustment also deconflicts the next SpaceX rotation with the upcoming Soyuz handover targeted for no earlier than mid-September. Teams are working to prepare the Crew-9 mission to be ready to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to deconflict with pad preparations for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission beginning this September at nearby Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. NASA also will adjust the launch of SpaceX’s 31st commercial resupply services mission to no earlier than mid-October.
They're saying Crew-9 will be the first crewed launch from the newly upgraded SLC-40, which I think we've been saying all year. Other launches have taken place, but the new crew access arm to board the Crew Dragon capsule and all that other new hardware hasn't done a real launch, yet.
It's possible that the big news in that NASA blog is buried in this little
blurb.
The agency will host a media teleconference at 12:30 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Aug. 7, with agency leadership to discuss ongoing operations, including NASA’s Crew-9, Crew-8, and Crew Flight Test missions.
Eric Berger at Ars Technica contacted NASA to get Administrator Bill Nelson's input.
Ars had the opportunity to speak with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on Tuesday afternoon as the space agency put out its news release. Asked if he had confidence in the decision-making process at NASA surrounding whether to return Wilmore and Williams on Starliner, Nelson replied, "Yes, I do. I especially have confidence since I have the final decision."
It's worth emphasizing that Nelson didn't say he'd made a decision that he'll make public tomorrow nor did he say he didn't or wouldn't make it public. They're definitely getting all the pieces in place that they've discussed needing to make the decision, so it sounds like it will be worthwhile to take the time to tune in for that conference Wednesday at 12:30 PM EDT.
Skeptical dog is skeptical.
We just have to wait. I reeealy don't think I'd want to reenter in that spacecraft.
ReplyDeleteI still think that there is something that they aren't telling us. Like that missing software thing that I just saw a few days ago.
ReplyDeleteStarliner is returning. So? Not news. What is news is are the astronauts assigned to it riding that chunk of space poop or is SpaceX coming to the rescue, and if the latter, when?
ReplyDelete"If it's Boeing, you ain't going."™
ReplyDeletehttps://i.imgur.com/CrCmYaT.png
DeleteExcellent.
DeleteI probably would have said "At Boeing we stand behind our work. A couple of miles behind works." Of course, that sort of alternative is personal preference or taste.
Dollars to donuts they launched that hunk of space junk knowing fully they had serious issues with hardware. Somebody yanked the software which controlled hands off automatic re-entry, leaving only manual flight control method of return, so they can not even undock without a human pilot. If it was otherwise, no serious reason they could un-dock and let the vehicle simply sit in flying formation, using automatic flight control to adjust and maintain position safely, as an option for leaving the dock free for Dragon. Looking at it from that perspective, could be they got themselves in one serious pickle, maybe, where the reliability of their hardware is so suspect they shan't even dare undock never-mind return to earth, because threat of possible collision hazard with the ISS. Say a thruster gets stuck, goes WOT, can not be shut off and rams the station. Again they launched, hoping for the best, knowing there was risks such as above, as they where so far behind on full-filing contract obligations, they had to launch or face serious monetary problems. It just gets worser and worser. How do you even clear an immobile multi ton spacecraft out to past safety zones, not like there are space tugs and space stevedores up there. ( though there should be, like long ago, with manufacturing stations and everything, instead if pissing around with strictly experimental programs. after all how many decades have they been running sample R&D? they have not yet come across a product or process worthy of commercial enterprise, after all the money and time expended. just find it preposterous. they can't even get what is no more than an Apollo design re-dux to work as designed? WTF? Where is all the money, hundreds of billions, so much money mere mortals can not conceive of, mountains of wealth, really and truly, where is it going one must ponder. because if all there is to show of it is nearing what the ptb have deemed decades old dilapidated space junk, which they are not considering worthy of salvaging not a nut or even bolt of? Dudes! This is insanity you ask me. Yet, its the same regime of nincompoops and clowns in effect, the peter principle writ huge, outer-space in size and scope. Plus can not forget DEI.
ReplyDeleteCould be the October suprise, nasa is run by the government. Don't look here on earth , look up in the sky!
ReplyDelete