Atlas 5

On 2024-05-14 Boeing rescheduled the CFT launch for no earlier than 2024-05-21 at 4:43 p.m. Eastern on an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Certifying the Atlas V to carry NASA astronauts required between 11,000 and 12,000 individual verifications of vehicle components and processes.

Access to detailed data for the Russian-built RD-180 engines that power the Atlas V booster was limited.

Starliner’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than 10:34 p.m. Eastern on 2024-05-06 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5.

Booster propulsion for Atlas V is provided by the RD-180 engine system, a single engine with two thrust chambers that delivers 390,180 kg (3.83 mega-Newtons) of thrust at sea level.

Space Launch Complex-41 employs a clean pad concept and uses a Mobile Launch Platform inside the Vertical Integration Facility to assemble Atlas V and payloads before rolling the stacked vehicle approximately 1,244 m to the pad.

Each Atlas V solid rocket booster provides 158,077 kg (1.55 mega-Newtons) of thrust.

The Atlas V configuration for this mission is powered by dual RL10A-4-2 engines, each producing 10,251 kg (100.5 kilo-Newtons) of thrust.

A four-point Handling Fixture Hoist Tool was used to connect to Starliner for the overhead crane to raise the spacecraft onto the Atlas V inside the Vertical Integration Facility aboard its Mobile Launch Platform.

Atlas V will launch northeasterly from Cape Canaveral, paralleling the Eastern Seaboard and crossing the North Atlantic to accelerate Starliner to approximately 17,475 mph (28,123 km/h).

The RD-180 booster engine delivers 390,180 kg (3.83 mega-Newtons) of thrust at sea level in the Atlas V booster configuration.

The Atlas V booster is 3.81 m (3.81 m) in diameter and 32.5 m (32.4 m) in length and uses structurally rigid tanks constructed of isogrid aluminum barrels, spun-formed aluminum domes and intertank skirts.

Space Launch Complex-41 uses a clean pad concept and the fully stacked Atlas V travels by rail approximately 1,244 m northward from the Vertical Integration Facility to the pad for final countdown and liftoff.

The Atlas V will launch northeasterly from Cape Canaveral, paralleling the Eastern Seaboard and crossing the North Atlantic to accelerate Starliner to approximately 17,475 mph (28,123 km/h).

The transporter provided environmental controls for Starliner during transport and maneuvered up to the 30-story-tall Vertical Integration Facility doorway for lifting and mating to the Atlas V on its Mobile Launch Platform.

The Atlas V Starliner configuration includes a launch vehicle adapter (LVA) that structurally attaches the CST-100 Starliner to the rocket and features a 70-inch-long (1.8-m) aeroskirt.

The Atlas V Starliner launch countdown features a planned four-hour built-in hold at the T-minus 4-minute mark to allow fueling and placement in a quiescent state before astronaut boarding.

Two solid rocket boosters generate additional liftoff thrust for Atlas V, with each SRB providing 158,077 kg (1.55 mega-Newtons) of thrust.

Booster propulsion for the Atlas V is provided by a single RD-180 engine with two thrust chambers that burns RP-1 and liquid oxygen and delivers 390,180 kg (3.83 mega-Newtons) of thrust at sea level.