Couple interesting clips from the VP of Engineering (now former VP) at ULA concerning flying crew:Quotewe’re flying Boeing’s CST-100, it's called the Starliner, we’re going to put six astronauts on top of an Atlas rocket, so 2017, we’ll fly it unmanned, in 2018, we’ll fly it as a manned flight.Isn't this flight advertised as 2017?QuoteWe’re working on getting it certified, and so right now, with Boeing, per the contract, we’re going through the human spaceflight organisation and looking at all the single point failures, all the redundancy, how things work, modifying the launch rockets primarily to meet their needs. It’s also interesting because the Boeing design doesn’t have an escape tower, it basically has four thrusters on the bottom of their capsule or the service module that will eject them off if there’s a bad day. And so there’s different things that the backpressure will tear apart, the backpressure of those thrusters if you have the wrong structural load will cause it to impinge on the capsule at very high altitudes, damages the heat shield, that will cause it to have a problem on reentry,QuoteLook, an achilles heel of the Atlas system right now is the Centaur upper stage. Assume that this is the Centaur stage failing and damaging the heat shield...Is this public knowledge? (Is now.)Maybe they should do that in-flight abort demo (that analysis supposedly eliminated).For transcript:http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=39180.msg1504420#msg1504420
we’re flying Boeing’s CST-100, it's called the Starliner, we’re going to put six astronauts on top of an Atlas rocket, so 2017, we’ll fly it unmanned, in 2018, we’ll fly it as a manned flight.
We’re working on getting it certified, and so right now, with Boeing, per the contract, we’re going through the human spaceflight organisation and looking at all the single point failures, all the redundancy, how things work, modifying the launch rockets primarily to meet their needs. It’s also interesting because the Boeing design doesn’t have an escape tower, it basically has four thrusters on the bottom of their capsule or the service module that will eject them off if there’s a bad day. And so there’s different things that the backpressure will tear apart, the backpressure of those thrusters if you have the wrong structural load will cause it to impinge on the capsule at very high altitudes, damages the heat shield, that will cause it to have a problem on reentry,
Look, an achilles heel of the Atlas system right now is the Centaur upper stage.
Jeff Foust has tweeted a new Commercial Crew milestone chart presented by Bill Gerstenmaier, current as of March 2016. (Previous chart was from November 30, 2015.)https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/715552131323994115QuoteGerst: commercial crew program doing pretty good overall, lots of challenges. Upcoming milestones:
Gerst: commercial crew program doing pretty good overall, lots of challenges. Upcoming milestones:
Jan 2017 shows the Boeing launch abort test. Where is that being held?
This isn't news but they mentioned that the CST-100 would be using the Atlas V 522. Initially, it was supposed to be the 512. So this is another confirmation that it will indeed be the 522 variation.
Quote from: yg1968 on 04/20/2016 03:16 amThis isn't news but they mentioned that the CST-100 would be using the Atlas V 522. Initially, it was supposed to be the 512. So this is another confirmation that it will indeed be the 522 variation.At 1:27 they say an it is a 400 series without a fairing, and call it specifically a *422*. (not 522)
In a multi-phase operation, that involved minute movement and precise placement, the pieces of the first CST-100 Starliner test article became a capsule. The test article will help verify the manufacturing method, the materials, and the parts being created by Boeing and the project’s suppliers and help study the design of the Starliner.
First crewed Starliner flight delayed to 2018; problems with vehicle weight and Atlas V acoustics.Ars link....
It is built to be able to fly on Falcon, but actually doing that defeats one of the major goals of the program: having better assurance of having a flying vehicle at all times by diversifying assets, not being vulnerable to a grounding on one launcher for instance.