spacetoday.net: Starliner suffers anomaly after launch

Posted: Sat, Dec 21, 2019, 11:46 PM ET (0446 GMT)
CST-100 Starliner in orbit (Boeing)

Boeing's CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle will not reach the International Space Station after suffering a technical problem after launch Friday. The Atlas 5 N22 carrying Starliner on an uncrewed test flight lifted off at 6:36 am EST (1136 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, and the Starliner separated from the Centaur upper stage as planned 15 minutes after liftoff. A miscalibrated timer in the spacecraft, though, caused it to fire thrusters at the wrong time, preventing it from doing an orbital insertion burn. Controllers were able to later perform a series of burns of place the spacecraft into orbit, but the spacecraft had used up too much propellant by that time to reach the ISS. Engineers are investigating the problem while controllers run other tests of the spacecraft. Starliner is now scheduled to land at 7:57 am EST (1257 GMT) Sunday in New Mexico, rather than stay in orbit until December 28 as originally planned.