The primary people to trip an Atlas rocket in additional than six many years should wait a bit longer, following Monday night time’s scrub of the Crew Flight Check (CFT) of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner at Cape Canaveral Area Power Station’s storied Area Launch Advanced (SLC)-41. Engineers noticed a defective oxygen aid valve on the second stage of the 172-foot-tall (52.4-meter) Atlas V, prompting United Launch Alliance (ULA) Launch Director Tom Heter III to formally name a scrub shortly after NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams had boarded the spacecraft.
Yesterday’s motion bought underway about 11 hours previous to the instantaneous 10:34:14 p.m. EDT launch try, when the CFT countdown bought underway at T-6 hours and 20 minutes. The prolonged rely embrace a pair of pre-planned, built-in holds: a primary, lasting an hour, simply previous to fueling of the Atlas V with cryogenic oxygen and hydrogen at T-2 hours, and a second working for 4 hours after the completion of fueling at T-4 minutes.
That might allow the eight-person “Blue Workforce”—consisting of three ULA and 5 Boeing personnel, led by Blue Workforce Chief (BTL) Dane Drefke of ULA—to entry the pad space, verifying the readiness of the White Room, getting into Starliner’s cabin, deploying environmental seals between the pad and the spacecraft and establishing entry platforms. They’d then change locations with the Boeing personnel, led by Pad Workforce Chief Nate Keyek-Franssen, who had been charged with aiding Wilmore and Williams into their seats aboard Starliner.
Flying in its “N22” configuration, outfitted with a Frequent Core Booster (CCB), a pair of Aerojet Rocketdyne-built AJ-60 solid-fueled boosters, a Twin-Engine Centaur (DEC) higher stage, the Launch Automobile Adapter (LVA) and no payload fairing, this explicit type of the Atlas V has solely been used twice earlier than, on the uncrewed Orbital Flight Assessments (OFTs) of Starliner in December 2019 and Might 2022. Like earlier incarnations of the mighty Atlas, its nickname was revealed by ULA CEO Tory Bruno as “The Bodyguard”, an apt moniker for the primary of the fleet entrusted with people.
In actual fact, Atlas rockets have flown solely 4 people all through historical past: Undertaking Mercury astronauts John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra and Gordon Cooper flew early incarnations of the car between February 1962 and Might 1963. With the Atlas V having been chosen by Boeing greater than a decade in the past to launch Starliner, CFT turns into the primary time an Atlas has flown people in additional than six many years.
Countdown operations started at 11:14 a.m. EDT Monday, led by ULA Preps Launch Conductor Dillon Rice, with the powering-up of the rocket. The primary built-in maintain began at 3:34 p.m. EDT, its hour-long pause within the rely enabling a shift change to happen within the Launch Management Middle (LCC) previous to fueling. Throughout this timeframe, the Preps Launch Workforce handed over their console tasks to the Tanking and Launch Workforce, led by ULA Chief Launch Conductor Doug Lebo.
Following climate inputs and authorization to proceed, groups initiated the fueling course of. Twenty-five thousand gallons (94,000 liters) of “storable” RP-1, a extremely refined type of rocket-grade kerosene, had already been loaded aboard the Atlas V CCB shortly after final week’s rollout and over the following a number of hours groups turned their consideration to the high-energy cryogens. All advised, the DEC was fueled with 4,150 gallons (18,870 liters) of super-cooled liquid oxygen and 12,300 gallons (46,560 liters) of liquid hydrogen and the CCB was loaded with 48,800 gallons (184,730 liters) of liquid oxygen.
With the conclusion of tanking, and with the Atlas V in a “quiescent state”, the countdown entered its second built-in maintain of 4 hours at 6:30 p.m. EDT. Throughout this timeframe, Wilmore and Williams had been handed over to the Boeing staff within the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout (O&C) Constructing the place they got a climate briefing and assisted into their “Boeing Blue” launch and entry fits by Boeing engineers and David Clark swimsuit technicians.
In the meantime, on the pad the ULA/Boeing Blue Workforce verified no poisonous vapors within the SLC-41 White Room and set to work opening Starliner’s hatch and readying the inside for Wilmore and Williams. The astronauts departed the O&C Constructing shortly after 7 p.m. EDT and rode Boeing’s Crew Transport Automobile (CTV) to the pad. As soon as there, they took the elevator to Degree 12 on the Crew Entry Tower (CAT) to start boarding the spacecraft.
Wilmore was in place within the commander’s seat shortly earlier than 8 p.m. EDT, with Williams following a couple of minutes later. The pair accomplished swimsuit pressurization and leak checks and established communications hyperlinks with floor controllers earlier than ULA Launch Director Tom Heter III made the disappointing name at 8:34 p.m. EDT—two hours previous to T-0—that Monday night time’s launch wouldn’t go forward.
“Out of an abundance of warning for the security of the flight and pad crew, we scrubbed the Crew Flight Check (CFT) launch try immediately resulting from an statement on a liquid oxygen self-regulating solenoid aid valve on the Centaur higher stage,” famous ULA. “The staff wants extra time to finish a full evaluation, so we’re focusing on the following launch try no sooner than Friday, Might 10”.
In accordance with feedback supplied by NASA’s Megan Cruz final week, Japanese Vary property can be found to help a pair of instantaneous T-0 factors at 9 p.m. EDT Friday and eight:38 p.m. EDT Saturday. Nevertheless, the climate image as groups head in the direction of the weekend seems problematic, with solely a 60-percent chance of go circumstances.
“The ridge axis slips additional south because the tail finish of a frontal boundary works its means into North Florida,” famous the forty fifth Climate Squadron at Patrick Area Power Base in an replace on Monday night time. “Between the situation of the entrance and the southwesterly low-level winds, there’s a larger probability for a climate constraint violation related to cumulus clouds and hooked up and indifferent anvil clouds.”
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