No one was expecting for Ship 31 to fly in June. Assuming all ships fly, this one will be on Flight 6. I doubt this incident affects Ship 29.

That's disappointing if it impacts this next flight. The plan was to complete the launch before Memorial Day.

Ah, you are right, it's 29 planned for IFT4. Thx.

nortex97 said:

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Boeing proposes…SLS for Mars sample return mission…in response to Nasa seeking a lower cost option. Seriously.

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Green did not offer a budget estimate for the Boeing concept, which he said still must undergo a cost analysis.

With lower-cost super heavy-lift rockets on the horizon, it seems like the Space Launch System has a finite shelf life. Using the SLS is probably the best chance NASA has to fly astronauts to the Moon in this decade, but by the 2030s, large reusable launchers like SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's New Glenn should be flying regularly.

SpaceX's Starship, mostly developed with private funding, is the vehicle Elon Musk says will send people to Mars. Sending Starship beyond low-Earth orbit will require the mastery of in-space refueling, something SpaceX and NASA are working on together because the agency selected Starship as the first human-rated lunar lander for the Artemis program.

Abraham Maslow's axiom"if the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail"rings true with Boeing and the Space Launch System. Boeing pushed for NASA to use the SLS rocket to launch the Europa Clipper mission to explore one of Jupiter's icy moons. Ultimately, NASA decided on a launch aboard SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket later this year at a fraction of the cost.

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On ship 31 during the cryo testing above, apparently the raceway burst open;

The raceway burst open at the location the flash came from. pic.twitter.com/kJ6dFIWTuP

— Redstone (@TheRedstoneHive) May 13, 2024

I haven't seen/read any informed speculation, so take this with a grain of salt, but I would suspect something got 'wet' that shouldn't from condensation build up (whose job is electrical) and then it fried out/burst. Again this is just my uninformed speculation but I'd guess they can repair this fairly quickly, and June launch is still plausible. I also think they have a few more upper stages built which could sub in for 31 if they want.

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Ship 29 is the June launch ship.

Then 30 THEN 31. Maybe September or August if we're lucky?

Pentagon notices there aren't a lot of Vulcan launches this year, either.

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"I am growing concerned with ULA's ability to scale manufacturing of its Vulcan rocket and scale its launch cadence to meet our needs," he wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. "Currently there is military satellite capability sitting on the ground due to Vulcan delays."...

ULA originally won 60 percent of the Pentagon's national security payloads under the current contract, known as Phase 2. SpaceX won an award for the remaining 40 percent, but it has been flying its reusable Falcon 9 rocket at a much higher rate. ULA launched only three rockets last year, as it transitions to Vulcan; SpaceX launched almost 100, mostly to put up its Starlink internet satellite constellation. Both are now competing for the next round of Pentagon contracts, a highly competitive procurement worth billions of dollars over several years.

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This is as 'surprising' as inflation figures, and New Glenn's launch cadence.

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SpaceX won an award for the remaining 40 percent, but it has been flying its reusable Falcon 9 rocket at a much higher rate.

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Lol. Much higher rate? Yeah. 100 to 3.

Berger has the story here:

The Air Force seems to think United Launch Alliance may not meet its commitments to launch military satellites by 2027. https://t.co/c1H7uVt8AX

— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) May 13, 2024

The government admitting defeat of something four years out is pretty groundbreaking though. They've probably got tens of billions more they could throw at it!

Boeing confirms Starliner's CFT launch is now May 21. The Centaur valve was replaced, but a helium leak was spotted on Starliner's Service Module.https://t.co/N2utUjE67S

— Chris Bergin - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) May 14, 2024

It's almost funny at this point.

I wonder if the Air Force will make Soace X sell engines to ULA. The stats are fairly close to the BE-4. That would be the final insult to Bezos. The best argument against it is that you don't want to be locked into a some source like with the RD-180.

I don't see how SpaceX could be convinced to bail their competitors out. They would be more likely to give the military a discount than to share their tech with Blue.

Just let BO buy some 'lightly used' F9's.

ChemAg15 said:

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Imagine being the guinea pig that's riding to space on the perpetually delayed rocket. How much confidence can you have?

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Something something millions of parts by the lowest bidder

ChemAg15 said:

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Imagine being the guinea pig that's riding to space on the perpetually delayed rocket. How much confidence can you have?

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I know the crew pretty well. Suni is awesome.

She's a Naval Academy grad and I was in a meeting with her and some engineers explaining a contingency scenario where we would have to ask a crew member to disconnect their air supply. She understood what I was talking about so I turned to the engineers and explained in frank terms how we would be asking the crew to commit suicide in that scenario. Suni interrupted and corrected me stating that they wouldn't be ending their own lives but saving their crew mates. Needless to say, we finally got a design update to mitigate the risk in the scenario I was describing.

Spaceflight can seem routine at times but we shouldn't underestimate the bravery of our astronauts or the trust they place in the hands of those of us working on the ground.

ChemAg15 said:

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Imagine being the guinea pig that's riding to space on the perpetually delayed rocket. How much confidence can you have?

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Guinea pig lifespans are 5-7 years according to Google, so fairly confident that it would be your grandpig or great grandpig's problem if our guinea pig was tabbed in 2010 when Boeing first unveiled its plans for Starliner.

lb3 said:

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ChemAg15 said:

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Imagine being the guinea pig that's riding to space on the perpetually delayed rocket. How much confidence can you have?

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I know the crew pretty well. Suni is awesome.

She's a Naval Academy grad and I was in a meeting with her and some engineers explaining a contingency scenario where we would have to ask a crew member to disconnect their air supply. She understood what I was talking about so I turned to the engineers and explained in frank terms how we would be asking the crew to commit suicide in that scenario. Suni interrupted and corrected me stating that they wouldn't be ending their own lives but saving their crew mates. Needless to say, we finally got a design update to mitigate the risk in the scenario I was describing.

Spaceflight can seem routine at times but we shouldn't underestimate the bravery of our astronauts or the trust they place in the hands of those of us working on the ground.

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Incredible story.

On a lighter note it reminded me of Tim Dodd 'The Everyday Astronaut' when he first tried on his quite real Russian spacesuit. I'm sure this story has been shared on here but:

He was so excited to try it out he stupidly put it all on by himself in his apartment and then immediately couldn't breath as the air hose was plugged and he had locked on the helmet.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/7t5awu/everyday_astronaut_how_a_spacesuit_almost_killed/

Thanks cool. Never seen that talk or heard that story.

Full stack of Flight 4 Starship pic.twitter.com/TPprnj0zC4

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 16, 2024

lb3 said:

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ChemAg15 said:

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Imagine being the guinea pig that's riding to space on the perpetually delayed rocket. How much confidence can you have?

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I know the crew pretty well. Suni is awesome.

She's a Naval Academy grad and I was in a meeting with her and some engineers explaining a contingency scenario where we would have to ask a crew member to disconnect their air supply. She understood what I was talking about so I turned to the engineers and explained in frank terms how we would be asking the crew to commit suicide in that scenario. Suni interrupted and corrected me stating that they wouldn't be ending their own lives but saving their crew mates. Needless to say, we finally got a design update to mitigate the risk in the scenario I was describing.

Spaceflight can seem routine at times but we shouldn't underestimate the bravery of our astronauts or the trust they place in the hands of those of us working on the ground.

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Just got back from Kennedy Space Center and couldn't agree more. Just the fact they have so many "firsts". One story I heard, believe it was Glenn was ordered to pull out his apple sauce packet and eat it. At that time they weren't sure if humans could eat in zero gravity but it was something that needed to be tried. Other stories about the ISS folks basically letting their bodies be active labs to measure all the affects of long term space stays.

Malachi Constant said:

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Full stack of Flight 4 Starship pic.twitter.com/TPprnj0zC4

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 16, 2024

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How are the rocket and the star ship actually attached ? Are they bolted ? And then bolts blow off during separation? Or some other method ? Just curious how that works

fullback44 said:

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Malachi Constant said:

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Full stack of Flight 4 Starship pic.twitter.com/TPprnj0zC4

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 16, 2024

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How are the rocket and the star ship actually attached ? Are they bolted ? And then bolts blow off during separation? Or some other method ? Just curious how that works

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I'd imagine some sort of latching mechanism or ring instead of explosive fasteners that could throw shrapnel.

But I'm speculating, I have no clue.

There needs to be a locking mechanism on the vehicle doors!

The bolts probably aren't explosive since they want rapid reuse and also since they're stacking and destacking constantly. Not sure what they trust to hold it together though... Failure of those connections (or failure to sep) is going to be loss of vehicle 100%.

Clamps

TLDW: LFG.

Block 2 starship flap showing up is pretty exciting, imho. It must be an enormous amount of capital SpaceX is investing in construction. Last week of may/first of June are their expectations for a launch license apparently (around 12 minutes).

Starliner launch is set for 3:09 ET NEXT Saturday. Because reading comprehension for a Mathguy is hard. Very hard.

Next Saturday, 25th

This summarizes things nicely.

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A history of delays and design problems

But the Starliner program has been plagued with delays and design problems for several years.

It failed to reach the space station during its first mission in 2019 after its onboard clock, which was set incorrectly, caused a computer to fire the capsule's engines too early. The spacecraft successfully docked with the space station during its second test flight in 2022, despite the failure of some thrusters during the launch.

Boeing then scrapped the planned launch of the Starliner's first crewed flight last year, after company officials realized that adhesive tape used on the craft to wrap hundreds of yards of wiring was flammable, and lines connecting the capsule to its three parachutes appeared to be weaker than expected. The launch was delayed indefinitely.

The May 6 launch was scrubbed because of a faulty oxygen relief valve, NASA said.

The delay comes roughly a decade after NASA awarded Boeing a more than $4 billion contract as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program, which pays private companies to ferry astronauts to and from the space station after the space shuttle was retired in 2011.

SpaceX, which was also awarded a $2 billion contract under the CCP initiative, has flown eight crewed missions for NASA and another four private, crewed spaceflights since 2020.

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PJYoung said:

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This summarizes things nicely.

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SpaceX, which was also awarded a $2 billion contract under the CCP initiative, has flown eight crewed missions for NASA and another four private, crewed spaceflights since 2020.

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Kill shot