Officials describe telltale ‘buzz’ that led to last-minute scrub of Boeing Starliner’s crewed launch

CNN By Jackie Wattles 5/7/2024

 Two NASA astronauts had reached the final hours before a long-awaited launch attempt aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule, the first crewed mission of the new spacecraft.

But the mission was scrubbed about two hours before the countdown clock hit zero because of an issue with a valve on the Atlas V rocket, a workhorse vehicle built in Alabama by United Launch Alliance that will fire the Starliner capsule to space.

Launch officials do not yet know when they will make a second attempt to get Starliner off the ground, though they’re now targeting no earlier than May 10.

“Good things are worth waiting for, and we’ll get a chance to see that rocket and spacecraft (get) off the pad here soon,” said NASA’s associate administrator for space operations Ken Bowersox during a news briefing Monday night. “We still have to gather more data. We don’t have a definitive plan for you yet — that will come as soon as we can provide it.”

The valve at issue is located on the Atlas V rocket’s second stage, or the upper portion of the vehicle that’s attached to the Starliner spacecraft.

Occasionally, valves can get into a position where they start to “buzz” by opening and closing rapidly, said Tory Bruno, the CEO of United Launch Alliance.

Some buzzing is OK, but too much could cause the valve to fail, Bruno said. And now engineers need to determine whether the component opened and closed enough to cause concern.

Officials will spend a day evaluating the issue and determining whether the valve needs to be replaced and the rocket needs to be rolled back off the launchpad.

More: https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/06/world/nasa-space-launch-boeing-starliner-scn/index.html

Thanks, Pookie.