Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, 'Out There,' was published on Nov. 13, 2018.
Boeing's Starliner capsule sits atop its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket ahead of the planned launch of the Crew Flight Test astronaut mission.The first crewed flight of Boeing's new Starliner capsule has been pushed to the end of the week due to a technical issue.
"The delay allows teams to complete data analysis on a pressure regulation valve on the liquid oxygen tank of the Atlas V rocket's Centaur upper stage and determine whether it is necessary to replace the valve," NASA officials wrote in an A launch on Friday would occur at 9 p.m. EDT . There's an additional backup opportunity on Saturday , NASA officials said. Whenever CFT launches, you can watch the action here at Space.com.It's too soon to know if Starliner and the Atas V will be ready to fly on Friday or Saturday, however. That depends on whether ULA decides to replace the valve, which would require rolling the rocket off the launch pad and back to its assembly facility.
Teams would then apply"tooling to support the Centaur, and the Starliner on top, and then we'd take off all the pressure and simply remove and replace the valve, pressurize it, remove the tooling, and then we'd be ready to roll back," ULA CEO Tory Bruno said in a post-scrub press conference on Monday night.
"That procedure takes several days," he added. So, if valve replacement turns out to be necessary,"it's unlikely we would be prepared to make another attempt before Sunday.
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