Now targeting 7:50 a.m. CT for launch of Starship’s fourth flight test. Weather conditions are 95% favorable. The webcast will go live ~30 minutes ahead of liftoff
TL;DW: Zack posits that the additional mass of the hot stage ring pushes the total mass of the booster close to (or over) the limit of what the booster can land with, based on the amount of propellant which can be stored in the current design of the landing tanks....
A5/Starliner CFT: Flight controllers have told the Starliner crew they are isolating the spacecraft’s port helium manifold, the one known to have a small but persistent leak. Mission control to the crew: “No action on the caution message. To catch you back up, we’re taking a look at the port helium manifold, we just isolated it to characterize this leak rate.”
A5/Starliner CFT: NASA commentator: “The team here on the ground keeping an eye on the port side of the spacecraft, particularly the manifold valves, noticing some helium increasing (sic) coming out of that valve, so the team is going to step through procedures to close that valve.”
A5/Starliner CFT: These exchanges came down about an hour ago; mission control just now told the crew they’re still assessing; no indication yet on whether this is a real concern or simply precautionary; managers said before launch leak would have to dramatically increase to be any sort of worry and for what it’s worth, commander Butch Wilmore doesn’t sound at all concerned; the crew is about to turn in for the night after a busy first day in space
A5/Starliner CFT: Apologies for the delay updating; as it turns out, flight controllers have detected two additional helium leaks, one in “top” manifold 1 and the other in “port” manifold 1; that’s in additional to the small leak in port manifold 2 that was known before launch; top manifold 1 and port manifold 1 have been isolated, taking 6 reaction control jets off line; port manifold 2 remains open
A5/Starliner CFT: Wilmore and Williams have gone to bed; flight controllers promised them a detailed update and presumably a manifold management plan when they get up tomorrow at 4:30am EDT (0830 UTC) to press into the space station rendezvous; it’s not yet known what sort of impact, if any, the leaks might have on downstream maneuvers, but mission managers said before launch they had developed a variety of backup plans to manage the helium supply through the de-orbit thruster firing at the end of the mission. Stay tuned
A5/Starliner CFT: One word of caution; we did not hear any actual leak rates specified other than an initial comment that the leak they knew about before launch, the one in port manifold 2, was roughly the same as it was before takeoff. The additional leakage could be minor or more significant. We won’t speculate because we don’t yet have any data to base it on.
Butch and Suni have now begun the sleep portion of the timeline just after Mission Control hand-off to the overnight team.
While the crew rests, Mission Control will be working the problem of the helium leaks that were detected in the Top Helium 1 and Port Helium 1 manifolds. Those are separate from the Port Helium 2 manifold leak seen before launch.
Before the crew went to bed, the ground had them close those two helium manifold valves and reconfigure the propulsion system to maintain attitude control while teams work the problem.
No burns are scheduled for the next eight hours which allows time for the crew to sleep without alarms - NSF’s Philip Sloss.
Not sure how practical these will be, but I’m glad that folks are working on electric aircraft, which will be one of the more challenging transportation sectors to de-carbonize.
Electron launches second NASA PREFIRE cubesat (spacenews.com)
Starship Integrated Flight Test 4 Launch Discussion and Updates Thread!
Well folks, it’s time for Starship IFT-4!...
Last minute change of plans (sh.itjust.works)
Fake tweet by u/extracterflux in The Other Place.
Why SpaceX Plans To Jettison The Interstage On Flight 4 (www.youtube.com)
TL;DW: Zack posits that the additional mass of the hot stage ring pushes the total mass of the booster close to (or over) the limit of what the booster can land with, based on the amount of propellant which can be stored in the current design of the landing tanks....
Firefly Aerospace inks multi-launch deal with Lockheed Martin for Alpha rocket rides (spacenews.com)
Third time’s the charm for the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test – Spaceflight Now (spaceflightnow.com)
Starship Gets Ready to Launch for a Fourth Time - NASASpaceFlight.com (www.nasaspaceflight.com)
The US installed more solar in Q1 2024 than it did in all of 2018 (electrek.co)
The US is putting enough solar to power 70,000 homes on old nuclear weapons sites (electrek.co)
GreenPower just launched a new electric refrigerated delivery truck (electrek.co)
Factorial delivers 106+ amp-hour solid-state cells to Mercedes-Benz to validate for EV use (electrek.co)
Archer Aviation receives FAA certification to begin commercial air taxi operations (electrek.co)
Not sure how practical these will be, but I’m glad that folks are working on electric aircraft, which will be one of the more challenging transportation sectors to de-carbonize.
Winning: diesel demand hits 26-year low as EV, hydrogen sales boom (electrek.co)
Wonderful news. I hate the smell of diesel exhaust.
I don't know what this sport is called, but it looks fun (i.imgur.com)
imgur.com/…/now-something-completely-different-52…