{"id":12825,"date":"2019-11-22T00:25:13","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T16:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/boeings-first-space-ready-starliner-crew-capsule-meets-its-atlas-5-launcher\/"},"modified":"2019-11-22T00:25:13","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T16:25:13","slug":"boeings-first-space-ready-starliner-crew-capsule-meets-its-atlas-5-launcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/boeings-first-space-ready-starliner-crew-capsule-meets-its-atlas-5-launcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing\u2019s first space-ready Starliner crew capsule meets its Atlas 5 launcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/strong> Updated at 1:30 p.m. with confirmation of lift and mate inside the Vertical Integration Facility.<\/p>\n

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Boeing\u2019s first Starliner crew capsule. Credit: Boeing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boeing\u2019s first Starliner crew capsule to fly in space departed its factory Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a trip to a launch pad a few miles away, where teams raised the craft atop an Atlas 5 rocket for liftoff next month on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

The Starliner spacecraft is being readied for liftoff no earlier than Dec. 17 from Cape Canaveral on a week-long unpiloted demonstration flight to the International Space Station, a crucial precursor before the first crewed Starliner mission next year.<\/p>\n

Fresh out of a fueling cell inside a former space shuttle hangar at Kennedy, the Starliner spacecraft rolled out of its manufacturing facility around 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) Thursday on a slow-speed transporter for a road trip to pad 41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.<\/p>\n

The transporter paused outside the Starliner manufacturing building for a brief ceremony. Boeing and NASA officials, along with the astronauts assigned to fly the Boeing-built ship\u2019s second space mission next year, celebrated the occasion with employees gathered outside Kennedy\u2019s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is critical to our future as a nation,\u201d said Bob Cabana, a former astronaut and current director of the Kennedy Space Center. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get astronauts flying on U.S. rockets out of here on U.S. soil and not have to rely on our Russian partners, and this is just a huge step forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so cool to finally see the Starliner rolling out of that building,\u201d Cabana said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time since a spaceship rolled out of there on its way to the pad to get stacked up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Boeing\u2019s Starliner rolls out of the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility early Thursday at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boeing converted one of NASA\u2019s three space shuttle processing facilities into a Starliner factory. The Starliner\u2019s gumdrop-snapped crew module is reusable \u2014 good for up to 10 flights \u2014 and the ship\u2019s power and propulsion segment burns up during atmospheric re-entry on each mission, requiring a steady line of new service modules.<\/p>\n

The Starliner\u2019s early morning departure from the Crew Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or C3PF, was reminiscent of the days of the space shuttle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the orbiter used to roll out, I always thought that was just a unique moment,\u201d Cabana said. \u201cYou came here (late) at night or early in the morning, dark, lights shining on it, and that\u2019s the beginning of a trip to space. Launching, it\u2019s really cool, but seeing it roll out on its way to the pad, this is the beginning of a trip to space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three astronauts training to fly on Starliner\u2019s crewed test flight spoke to Boeing employees during Thursday\u2019s rollout ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to get a lot easier, but it\u2019s going to get a lot more fun,\u201d said Chris Ferguson, a Boeing astronaut and former space shuttle commander who will fly on the Starliner\u2019s first crewed mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs graduates of military test pilot schools, we are really excited to see how Starliner is going to behave (in orbit),\u201d said Mike Fincke, a veteran astronaut who will join Ferguson and first-time space flier Nicole Mann on the Starliner\u2019s Crew Flight Test next year. \u201cWe know it\u2019s going to be awesome, and we\u2019re going to get all kinds of really good test data from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult work, it\u2019s relentless, and each day you\u2019re crushing it, so thank you for being amazing,\u201d Mann the Starliner team at Kennedy.<\/p>\n

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Bob Cabana, director of NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center, speaks at a ceremony Friday marking the rollout of the Starliner crew capsule. Credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although no astronauts will fly on the Starliner\u2019s first launch next month, an anthropometric test dummy is already strapped inside the capsule. Boeing has named the dummy \u201cRosie the Astronaut\u201d in honor of \u201cRosie the Riveter,\u201d an icon of World War II honoring the contributions of women in aircraft and armament factories.<\/p>\n

\u201cRosie embodies everything you would expect from her name: inspiration, strength, hope, determination and the future of human spaceflight,\u201d Boeing said. \u201cSitting in the Starliner commander\u2019s seat, she\u2019ll be equipped with hundreds of sensors that will return critical data to the Starliner team ahead of the first crewed flight. They\u2019ll be especially interested in the forces she experiences through launch, ascent, re-entry and landing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar dummy flew on an unpiloted test flight of the SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon spacecraft to the space station in March. SpaceX named its dummy \u201cRipley\u201d after Sigourney Weaver\u2019s character in the \u201cAlien\u201d film series.<\/p>\n

After a road trip around the VAB and eastward along a road paralleling NASA\u2019s famed crawlerway, the transporter turned south to reach United Launch Alliance\u2019s Vertical Integration Facility at pad 41, where ground crews connected the capsule to the top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.<\/p>\n

ULA began assembling components of the Atlas 5 rocket inside the VIF on Nov. 4, when the Atlas 5\u2019s first stage was raised vertical on top of a mobile launch platform. Since then, technicians have installed two strap-on solid rocket boosters on each side of the Atlas 5\u2019s bronze first stage and lifted the rocket\u2019s Centaur upper stage on top.<\/p>\n

The Centaur upper stage features two major changes from hardware that\u2019s flown on ULA\u2019s 80 previous Atlas 5 launches.<\/p>\n

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Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft outside the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility. Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Centaur designed for Starliner missions is powered by two Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engines, while the earlier Atlas 5 missions flew with a single-engine Centaur stage. ULA also designed a structural skirt on the top of the Centaur stage to reduce aerodynamic loads during the rocket\u2019s climb through the atmosphere, a change introduced because the Starliner will not fly inside a payload shroud during launch.<\/p>\n

Since stacking the Atlas 5 rocket inside the VIF, ULA has powered up the launcher for a series of pre-flight checkouts. On Tuesday, ULA, Boeing and NASA teams conducted a mission dress rehearsal to practice countdown procedures ahead of the Starliner\u2019s scheduled launch Dec. 17.<\/p>\n

With the Starliner spacecraft lifted atop the Atlas 5, ground crews will verify a series of mechanical and electrical connections between the launch vehicle and the crew capsule. The entire Atlas 5 rocket with the Starliner on top stands 172 feet (52 meters) tall.<\/p>\n

The Atlas 5 will roll out to pad 41 in early December for a full countdown dress rehearsal, during which ULA will fill and drain the Atlas 5\u2019s propellant tanks. The rocket will return to the VIF for final checkouts before rolling to the pad again ahead of the planned Dec. 17 launch date.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not done yet. We\u2019ve got to step into the mission carefully,\u201d said Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA\u2019s commercial crew program. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to finish it up, get the spacecraft on the rocket, and then get it to station and get this vehicle back safely, and that\u2019s going to be an important first step for us to make sure that we\u2019re working together to fly the NASA crews to the International Space Station.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Starliner\u2019s Orbital Flight Test will last about one week, ending with a parachute-assisted, airbag-cushioned landing at one of three candidate sites in the Western United States. Boeing\u2019s preferred landing site, weather permitting, is at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

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The Starliner spacecraft was stacked atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Thursday afternoon at Cape Canaveral. Credit: Boeing\/United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA is paying Boeing more than $5 billion to develop, build and fly Starliner missions to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX has received a similar set of agreements valued at approximately $3.1 billion for the company\u2019s Crew Dragon spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Both companies aim to fly NASA astronauts into low Earth orbit next year, ending nearly nine years of U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz crew ferry ships since the retirement of the space shuttle. Boeing and SpaceX have encountered problems with their launch abort propulsion, parachutes and other systems, delaying their first crew launches by several years.<\/p>\n

Boeing says the launch of the Starliner\u2019s first Crew Flight Test, with Ferguson, Fincke and Mann on-board, is scheduled for mid-2020. The company is building a second space-rated Starliner crew module for the Crew Flight Test, and Boeing plans to use both vehicles in rotation for a series of crew ferry flights to the station through at least 2024, and possibly longer if the space station\u2019s lifetime is extended.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we are less than a month away from flight, and as soon as we get this one rolled out, the focus is going to be on getting Spacecraft 2 built, and we\u2019re going to give the folks to my left here an absolutely fantastic ride in the middle of next year,\u201d said John Mulholland, Boeing\u2019s vice president and program manager for commercial crew. \u201cSo first thing\u2019s first, let\u2019s go OFT, and then we\u2019ll go get these guys a ride in the middle of next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Updated at 1:30 p.m. with confirmation of lift and mate inside the Vertical Integration Facility. Boeing\u2019s first Starliner crew capsule. Credit: Boeing Boeing\u2019s first Starliner crew capsule to fly in space departed its factory Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a trip to a launch pad a few miles away, where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[864,2181,670,1392,524,291,1708,1565],"class_list":["post-12825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerojet-rocketdyne","tag-av-080","tag-boeing","tag-centaur","tag-commercial-crew","tag-commercial-space","tag-complex-41","tag-cst-100"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12825"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}