More Delays for Boeing's Starliner?
Update: NASA issued the following statement late on Tuesday:
NASA, Boeing and ULA are forgoing the Saturday, May 25 launch attempt for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. The team has been in meetings for two consecutive days, assessing flight rationale, system performance, and redundancy. There is still forward work in these areas, and the next possible launch opportunity is still be discussed.
NASA will share more details once we have a clearer path forward.
William Harwood of CBS News is reporting that the long delayed crewed flight test of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft could be delayed beyond its rescheduled May 25 launch date. There has been no confirmation from Boeing or NASA concerning any schedule change.
Boeing has been dealing with a helium leak in the propulsion system on Starliner’s service module. The first attempt to launch on May 8 was scrubbed due to a valve problem on the Centaur upper stage of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. The valve was replaced and the launch rescheduled for May 21, but the helium leak delayed the flight further.
NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams are scheduled to fly Starliner to the International Space Station (ISS), where they will spend a week. This is the final of three flight tests of Starliner that are designed to qualify the spacecraft to transport astronauts to ISS on a commercial basis.
Boeing is years late in delivering Starliner, which has been plagued by technical and quality control issues.
Upcoming Launches
The world’s launch providers have a busy schedule to close out May. SpaceX will launch the Starshield mission for the National Reconnaissance Office on Tuesday, May 22 at 1 a.m. PDT (4 a.m. EDT/0800 UTC).
Upcoming Launches
May 22 – Falcon 9 – SpaceX – Starshield – National Reconnaissance Office – Reconnaissance – Vandenberg – USA
May 22 – Falcon 9 – SpaceX – 23 Starlink – SpaceX – Communications – Cape Canaveral – USA
May 23 – Falcon 9 – SpaceX – 23 Starlink – SpaceX – Communications – Kennedy – USA
May 25 – Electron – Rocket Lab – PREFIRE – Meteorology – Mahia – New Zealand
May 25 – Ceres-1S – Galactic Energy – Tianqi 25-28 – Internet of Things – Yellow Sea – China
May 25 – Atlas V – United Launch Alliance – Starliner – Boeing – ISS crewed flight test – Cape Canaveral – USA (POSSIBLY DELAYED)
May 28 – Falon 9 – SpaceX – EarthCARE – ESA/JAXA – Earth observation – Vandenberg – USA
May 30 – Soyuz-2.1a – Roscosmos – Progress MS-27/88P – Roscosmos – ISS resupply – Baikonur – Kazakhstan
May 30 – Long March 3B/E – China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) – Paksat-MM1 – Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission – Communications – Xichang – China
May 31 – Ceres-1 – Galactic Energy – 3 Yunyao-1 – Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics – Meteorology – Jiuquan – China
Rocket Lab will conduct the first of two launches for NASA’s Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE) mission on May 25. The two PREFIRE satellites will study how much of Earth’s heat is lost to space, with a particular focus on the Arctic and Antarctica. The data will enable scientists to better estimate how global warming will affect ice loss and sea level rise.
Roscosmos is due to send the Progress MS-27 resupply ship to ISS on May 30.
Recent Launches
May 14 – Falcon 9 – SpaceX – 20 Starlink – SpaceX – Communications – Vandenberg – USA
May 16 – Soyuz-2.1b – Russian Strategic Rocket Forces – Plesetsk – Russia
Kosmos 2576 – Russian Aerospace Forces – Reconnaissance
3 Rassvet-2 – Bureau 1440 LLC – Communications
Zorkiy-2M-4 – Sputnix – Earth observation
Zorkiy-2M-6 – Sputnix – Earth observation
4 SITRO-AIS – Sitronics Group – AIS ship tracking
May 18 – Falcon 9 – SpaceX – 23 Starlink – SpaceX – Communications – Cape Canaveral – USA
May 20 – Long March 2D – China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation – Beijing-3C 01-04 – Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology Company Ltd. – Earth observation – Taiyuan – China
May 21 – Kuaizhou 11 – ExPace – Jiuquan – China
Tianyan-22 – Mino Space – Earth observation
VLEO test satellite – TBA – Communications
Wuhan-1 – TBA
Lingque-3 01 – TBA
Launch Statistics
The world should exceed the 100 launch mark later this week, far ahead of the 85 launches that were conducted through May of last year.
U.S. companies lead the world with 59 launches and more than 900 payloads sent into orbit or beyond. China is in second place with 24 launches, followed by Russia with seven.
SpaceX is responsible for 52 of the 97 launches, which is 53.6 percent of the total. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation is in second place with 18 launches.
Rocket Lab and Roscosmos of Russia are tied for third place with five launches apiece.
Florida has hosted 37 launches while Vandenberg Space Force Base in California has hosted 16 launches. China’s Jiuquan and Xichang spaceports have hosted seven launches apiece.