Posted on 12/20/2019 8:24:33 AM PST by BenLurkin
Boeing's Starliner astronaut taxi suffered an anomaly today (Dec. 20) during its flight to the International Space Station during the Orbital Flight Test (OFT) mission.
About 90 minutes after blastoff, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said on Twitter that the capsule will not be able to reach the space station because it burned too much fuel during the anomaly.
The Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance successfully launched from Space Launch Complex 41 here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6:36 a.m. EST (1136 GMT) as planned. But, as of about an hour after launch, the mission team had announced an anomaly with the uncrewed capsule's orbit.
About 15 minutes after launch, Starliner was scheduled to complete a 40-second orbital insertion burn that would have evened out its orbit to a circle, allowing it to meet up with the space station. But this stage in the flight was off-nominal...
"After launching successfully at 6:36 a.m. Eastern Time Friday on the United Launch Alliance Atlas v rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the Boeing Starliner space vehicle experienced an off-nominal insertion," Boeing spokesperson Kelly Kaplan told reporters here at the press site.
"The spacecraft is currently in safe, stable configuration," Kaplan added. "Flight controllers have completed a successful initial burn and are assessing next steps. Boeing and NASA are working together to review options for the test and mission opportunities available while the Starliner remains in orbit. A joint news conference will be held at 9 a.m. Eastern on NASA TV."
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Watching the launch live on Everyday Astronaut’s YouTube channel, he remarked that it was unusual for the rocket to keep the spent solid rocket boosters for 40+ seconds after they burned out before jettisoning them.
Had they not dragged that extra dead weight for an additional 40+ seconds, they might have had enough fuel?
I'm not touching that for a million dollars.
Damn you, anomaly
“Math is hard”
Have Musk fly up some gas...
ANOTHER software problem???
I hear that that they just could not keep the nose from tipping down.
Boeing/ULA also had a recent problem with a parachute failing to deploy during the Starliner abort test. Somebody forgot to insert a pine connecting the drogue to the main chute.
Today’s problem was also simple, having to do with a timing interpretation issue in the software. Basic checklists and simulations prevent these failures.
SpaceX made it to the space station with their unmanned crew capsule a few months ago. But then the reused capsule exploded during a test. SpaceX is scheduled to do their in flight abort test next month, and then the crewed test shouldn’t be too long after that if everything goes well.
However, Boeing/ULA is being paid a lot more money to do the same job and falling behind.
I thought math was racist?
Imagine that NASA landed guys on the Moon and brought them back to Earth safely in 1969!!! They aren’t even close to being able to do that now. People would die.
I know...I think this just highlights private enterprise.
The Boeing mystique has sure faded into a fog of foul-ups.
Meanwhile, thank goodness this was an ummanned launch.
Time to focus on the mission and not the prize for a change or get out of the race to the cosmos.
> I thought math was racist? <
It depends on how you ask.
Racist: How much is 1+1?
Not racist: In your opinion, and based on your culture and background, how much do you think 1+1 is? There is no one right answer. To the contrary. Because we value diversity above all else, any answer is acceptable.
A “problem” of fuel consumption LONNNNNNNNG AGO solved by rocketry experts, before Alan Shepherd went up in Mercury One... So, HOW does BOEING explain THIS f’ng BASIC computation in computing space flight needs?
Just appalling. They OWE THE UNITED STATES EVERY DIME OF THIS. What idiots!
Tell Boeing to call SpaceX and see if they can bring them some fuel or a tow rope on their next launch. lol
How many of NASA billions have been spent on this?
I bet the flight software was written in python and deployed in a docker container orchestrated with Kubernetes in the cloud ...
I have absolutely no clue to what you are referring. Please tell me the source.
How man H1bs were used as engineers? The engineers in the 60s used slide rules to get it right.
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