Main Engine Cut OffBoeing Working Through CST-100 Issues
Stephen Clark, for Spaceflight Now:
One issue involved the mass of the crew capsule, which outgrew the lift capability of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket selected to put it into orbit.
The CST-100 Starliner will ride an Atlas 5 rocket with two solid rocket boosters and a dual-engine Centaur upper stage, and although Boeing and ULA engineers considered adding a third strap-on motor to compensate for the capsule’s extra weight, managers now have the spacecraft back under its mass allowance, Ferguson said.
They also seem to be on the brink of solving the aerodynamic loading issues they’ve talked about in the past.
The one issue they haven’t yet solved is how damn expensive these launches are going to be, riding on an Atlas V.