"Buzzing" in rocket: named the second attempt to launch a Starliner ship for $ 4 billion
Subscribe not to miss the latest and most intrusive news from the world of science! The start of the ATLAS V rocket launcher with the Starliner spacecraft on the top was to take place on May 6 from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. On board the ship were two NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who had to fly to the International Space Station (ICS) and spend 7 days there.
This launch was made by the fact that astronauts went into space for the first time on the Starliner ship. But about 2 hours before launch, the mission was canceled because the starting team found that the oxygen discharge valve at the upper stage of the ATLAS V rocket launcher. That is, it opened and closed very quickly. After that, Boeing and NASA laid the start on May 10. But now it turned out that the launch of a spacecraft will take place later, if it happens at all.
The company developer United Launch Alliance has decided to replace the problem valve, and this will have to remove the rocket from the starting ground. Therefore, according to NASA, a new launch into space is assigned to May 17. At 18:16 in the Eastern North American time (Ukraine will already be 1:16 on May 18), the rocket should still be launched by Boeing with astronauts on board.
For Boeing, this flight is very important, as this will test the ability of the Starliner ship to perform six -month missions for the delivery of NASA astronauts to the ISS and their return to Earth. According to NASA, the United Launch Alliance engineers analyzed the problem valve on the rocket launcher and were temporarily able to stiflate the "hum". However, this valve continued to move too quickly during fuel removal operations. Therefore, it was decided to replace it.
Boeing has developed Starliner as part of a $ 4. 2 billion contract. At the same time, SpaceX concluded the same contract worth $ 2. 6 billion to create a Dragon ship. SpaceX made the first manned flight into the space of her ship in 2020. Since then, NASA astronauts have been flying on the ISS on the Dragon ship. In March, 4 astronauts were delivered to the MCCs at the MCS mission to return to the ground in August.
As the focus has already wrote, scientists have found mysterious processes on the place of planting the Chinese Chani-6 module on the back of the moon. The reverse of the moon has many riddles and the Chinese landing module will help to open them. Focus also wrote that scientists were able to find out how at the beginning of the universe were already able to emerge overpassive black holes, the mass of which millions of times greater than the mass of the sun.