![]() ![]() At the pad and later in the VIF, Boeing employees found that the sensors were correct and the valves had actually remained closed. During the pre-launch readiness check on the pad, sensors indicated that 13 of the NTO valves had failed to open on command. Starliner uses nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) as the oxidant in its propulsion system. As a result, the Atlas V was rolled back to the VIF again for further testing. Due to unexpected valve position indications in the Starliner propulsion system, the launch was further delayed to later in August while engineering teams investigated the problem. The 3 August launch attempt was scrubbed due to technical problems with the propulsion system on Starliner causing another 24 hours recycle, with launch planned for 4 August 2021 at 16:57 UTC. Atlas V was rolled out again 2 August 2021. The Atlas V was immediately rolled back to the VIF, and the launch time was delayed to 3 August 2021 at 17:20:18 UTC. ![]() In an entirely separate mission, the Nauka module had docked at the space station earlier that morning, but its thrusters misfired, causing serious anomalies that would make the OFT-2 docking impossible until they were corrected. OFT-2 was in the late stages of preparation on 29 July 2021 and the Atlas V with the starliner stacked had just been rolled out to the pad. ![]() Main article: Boeing Orbital Flight Test 2Īfter several schedule slips, Spacecraft 2 was scheduled to launch on 30 July 2021 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on OFT-2, an approximately week-long test flight to the ISS. In July 2020, Boeing announced that following an investigation into the failure that occurred on Boe-OFT, they would schedule a second uncrewed flight test using the spacecraft and Atlas V N22 rocket originally manifested to be used on CFT, then scheduled for October 2020. Prior to OFT, Spacecraft 2 was scheduled to fly on Boe-CFT, the first crewed Starliner flight test sometime in 2020, although the partial failure that occurred on Boe-OFT threw this into doubt. The flight ended in partial failure, with Calypso being forced to return to Earth without arriving at the ISS due to an issue with the spacecraft's onboard Mission Elapsed Timer (MET) clock software. The first Starliner flight test, Boe-OFT, was launched on 20 December 2019, carrying Starliner Calypso (Spacecraft 3) on what was expected to be a week-long uncrewed shakedown cruise to the International Space Station. The spacecraft's ability to be reused up to ten times with a six-month turnaround time between flights meant three spacecraft would be enough to satisfy the needs of the Commercial Crew Program. ![]() Boeing planned to construct three Starliner spacecraft. In September 2014 Boeing was one of two companies selected by NASA to develop crewed spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, the other being SpaceX. The spacecraft was originally scheduled to make its maiden flight on Boe-CFT, the first crewed flight test of the Starliner spacecraft, although following the partial failure of the other CST-100 on Boe-OFT which required a repeat uncrewed test ( Boe-OFT-2) of the spacecraft to be scheduled, spacecraft 2 was reassigned to Boe-OFT-2 and also scheduled to fly Starliner-1 after being reassigned from CFT mission. Boeing Starliner Spacecraft 2 is the first of two active Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft developed and built under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. ![]()
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