Boeing Starliner successfully launched to the ISS

I am delighted to report that Boeing Starliner successfully launched to the International Space Station.

Liftoff was at 10:52 AM ET on June 5, 2024, from Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The countdown went really smoothly; the pad crew closed the hatch around 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The weather team had an eye on some cumulus clouds but they didn’t impact the launch. Things went exactly as planned, with no major issues during the launch countdown, which is a change from the previous two attempts!

Why NASA wants both Crew Dragon and Starliner

This is a huge deal, and a lot of people have stated we should just use SpaceX’s Dragon, and don’t need Starliner. Well, NASA disagrees and I understand why. During the Space Shuttle era, the U.S. was left without a human-rated launch vehicle for months, sometimes years, during periods the fleet was grounded.

And in those years between the last launch of the Space Shuttle and the first operational launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, 2011 to 2020, the only vehicle that could take NASA astronauts to the ISS was Russia’s Soyuz.

NASA has a ton of experience with only having one functional spacecraft to do things that are now routine, taking astronauts to low Earth orbit, and they don’t like that much.

If there was an anomaly during a Crew Dragon flight, the vehicle would be grounded during an investigation, and NASA would once again be without a spacecraft capable of taking astronauts to and from the ISS and have to work with Russia, which is more difficult than it used to be (though we are still doing crew swaps between Crew Dragon and the Soyuz, and presumably that will continue on Starliner). That’s why it’s important to have two vehicles, and why NASA awarded two Commercial Crew contracts. 

The road has been bumpy for Boeing Starliner

We got so close to liftoff on June 1, but an automatic hold kicked in three minutes and 50 seconds before launch because of an issue — not with the launch vehicle or spacecraft, but the ground system housed at the base of the launch pad. There are three controllers, think like racks of computers, that basically do the same thing. It’s a system with triple redundancy, and all three systems have to agree to launch the rocket.

Well, basically, one didn’t. This was an issue with what’s called a launch sequencer. And because this is an instantaneous launch window (they all are for this Boeing CFT), which means once you have passed all the built-in holds in the countdown, there’s no margin for error, the hold that late in the countdown led to a scrub. ULA switched some of the hardware, and that fixed the problem.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions on the launch vehicle, the Atlas V, and whether these kinds of valve issues it’s had as well as this launch sequencer issue are normal. The answer is yes, BUT.

Boeing’s getting blamed for a lot of the delays here, and some of that’s valid — first of all, the development delays that pushed this launch to that May 6 point were squarely a Boeing issue. But also a lot of the issues since the May 6 launch date have been with the launch vehicle and ground systems, not the Boeing capsule. That would be ULA, or United Launch Alliance, which is separate from Boeing….but was a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing to launch spacecraft, so…I mean it’s all interconnected here. The space industry seems big, but it’s really not. 

The Atlas V launch vehicle has an incredible track record. It’s a very reliable rocket. But there are two things at play here. First, it’s an older rocket, which isn’t a big deal in and of itself, because that means it has that record of reliability. But the rocket has also been functionally retired, and the contracted Boeing Starliner flights will be the last Atlas V flights. If Boeing flies more Starliner flights than NASA has already purchased (which seems doubtful honestly), they’ll have to come up with a different launch vehicle — possibly ULA’s new Vulcan rocket, which is not currently human rated.

But also, this is the first time the Atlas V is launching humans. That means that there’s a lot they would have been previously able to work through on an uncrewed mission that they can’t on these missions, both because they have to be extra careful because there are humans on board and because these are instantaneous launch windows.

All of that being said, delays are absolutely normal in spaceflight. I can’t tell you how many Space Shuttle flights were called off because of valve issues or ground systems problems. It was a lot. But it’s also normal to find this especially frustrating, given the delays this spacecraft has already had and the optics here — there’s more pressure on this flight because of how badly Boeing has been doing across their aviation business, and people assume that these launch scrubs are also due to those issues, which isn’t really the case.

It’s the balancing of “get this thing off the ground already” while also recognizing that the spacecraft and launch vehicle should not fly until they’re ready with crew on board, because the priority is crew safety not schedules. But then wondering why isn’t it ready, shouldn’t it be by now, are there larger issues here? Which is always a valid question when we’re talking about Boeing (but as I’ve said before, I do trust that NASA will not put astronauts in a spacecraft unless they are certain it’s safe).

The good news is things went smoothly today.

It’s been a long road to this point, and there’s been a lot of cynicism about this spacecraft and launch.

Boeing Starliner has been delayed again and again — the initial test flight was supposed to in early 2017 (though that date was probably never realistic). 

But even after the CFT date was finally scheduled for May 6, there were more delays for various reasons — a pressure valve on the Atlas V launch vehicle that needed to be replaced, a helium leak in the Starliner thrusters, a redundancy issue in the propulsion system — it’s been a lot. (I have a full rundown on Starliner’s problems since that May 6 launch date in a recent newsletter).

Interestingly, there was also a hardware failure on the ISS that actually made it fortuitous that Starliner had been delayed. Apparently last week a pump for the urine processor assembly failed on the ISS. Urine is processed into drinking water on the ISS, it’s a closed-loop system, so with that pump down, they’d have to store urine. Which is definitely possible, but it becomes a problem when you’re talking about storing urine for months. The replacement part was scheduled to go up on the Northern Grumman Cygnus resupply spacecraft in August.

Well, they managed to shuffle some stuff around on Starliner and get this 150-lb spare part onto Starliner. They had to pull off two crew suitcases, but if the choice is between having to store urine for months or not having some spare clothes and shampoo, I definitely think they made the right choice here.

Now the question is, what’s next?

Well, for the mission, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are going to dock with the ISS. Arrival coverage will start tomorrow, Thursday, at 9:30 am ET, and docking with the forward-facing port of the ISS’s Harmony module is targeted for 12:15 pm. The hatch opening is currently scheduled for 2 pm, and then welcome remarks at 2:20 pm. 

We’re not quite sure how long the two astronauts will stay on the ISS. The mission is supposed to last for 8 days, but it will depend on a few things, including weather and other traffic at the ISS. Really, it just depends on how long they feel they need to complete the mission, so we’ll see what happens.

And then after that? It’s certifying Starliner for its operational missions, assuming of course that the rest of the mission goes smoothly. The original plan was to certify Starliner for operational flights by November or December. There’s a certification review scheduled in November with NASA, but it’s not clear whether everything will be concluded by then because of this delay. 

Mark Nappi, who is the VP and program manager for Boeing’s Commercial Crew program, said at a press conference Friday, they’ll review whatever data they have at that point, even if all the analysis isn’t complete. It’s quite possible they will have it done, to be clear, but if there are a lot of anomalies during the flight, that could take awhile to analyze. The goal here at this point is to have the first operational Starliner flight in early 2025, but…we’ll see if that’s doable.

At this point, though, we’re just hoping the rest of the test flight goes smoothly, and there are no serious problems to deal with.