Boing Streamliner Launch tonight.Test flight

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streamliner

A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired upright and recumbent bicycles. As part of the Streamline Moderne trend, the term was applied to passenger cars, trucks, and other types of light-, medium-, or heavy-duty vehicles, but now vehicle streamlining is so prevalent that it is not an outstanding characteristic. In land speed racing, it is a term applied to the long, slender, custom built, high-speed vehicles with enclosed wheels.



(Sounds right to me.)

Starliner may refer to:

Boeing Starliner, a crew spacecraft
Ford Starliner (1960–1961), a fastback version of the Ford Galaxie
Lockheed L-1649 Starliner (1956–1958), an airplane
Spaceship (disambiguation), analog of jetliner or cruiseliner
Vega Model 2 Starliner, a 1939 prototype lightplane by Vega Aircraft Corporation
Studebaker Starliner (1952–1954), a hardtop version of the Studebaker Starlight
The Starliner, a former roller coaster at Miracle Strip Amusement Park, Panama City Beach, Florida
"The Starliner", a track from Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Volume 4: Meglos & Full Circle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starliner

The Boeing Starliner (or CST-100[b]) is a class of partially reusable spacecraft designed to transport crew to the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth-orbit destinations.[7][8][9] It is manufactured by Boeing, with the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) of NASA as the lead customer.[10] The spacecraft consists of a crew capsule that can be reused on up to ten missions and an expendable service module.[11]

The capsule has a diameter of 15 feet (4.56 m), slightly larger than either the Apollo command module or SpaceX Crew Dragon and smaller than the Artemis Orion capsule.[6] Starliner can hold a crew of up to seven people and can remain docked to the ISS for up to seven months. Starliner is launched on Atlas V N22 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

After several rounds of competitive development contracts within the Commercial Crew Program starting in 2010, NASA selected Starliner, along with the SpaceX Crew Dragon, in the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract round.[12][13][14][15] The first crewed test flight test was initially planned to occur in 2017.[15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Crewed_Flight_Test

Boeing Crew Flight Test (Boe-CFT) is the first crewed mission of the Boeing Starliner and the third orbital flight test of the Starliner overall after the two uncrewed orbital flight tests, Boe-OFT and Boe-OFT 2 in 2019 and 2022.

The first crewed flight test was initially planned to occur in 2017.[2] Various delays pushed the launch of the CFT mission to no earlier than 21 July 2023.[3] Boeing announced in August 2023 that it would be delayed to no earlier than March 2024 due to issues with the parachute system and wiring harnesses and further investigations.[4]

The mission entails flying a crew of two NASA astronauts, Barry E. Wilmore and Sunita Williams, to the International Space Station for a one-week test flight and then returning the crew via a ground landing in the American Southwest. The spacecraft was integrated with the Atlas launch vehicle on 16 April 2024 in preparation for launch.[5]

The flight was scheduled for liftoff at 2:34 UTC on 7 May 2024, but was scrubbed about two hours before liftoff due to an oxygen valve problem on the United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Atlas V.[b][6][7] After the initial scrub, the launch was repeatedly delayed due to a helium leak in the Starliner service module.[8]

The second launch attempt was on 1 June at 16:25 UTC, but was scrubbed 3 minutes, 50 seconds before liftoff when the ground launch sequencer computer registered a loss of redundancy due to a faulty power supply. The third launch attempt, on 5 June at 14:52 UTC, was successful.

i really rather like the streamliner train, and wish our space craft could look a bit like those

Well the whole rocket with the space craft on the top was certainly aerodynamic. So maybe it was a a Streamliner Starliner.

I hyperfocused on the rocket. Looks like this one went up on a Atlas V. Not reusable. Jeff Bezos is working on a 100 percent reusable rocket called project Jarvis. Elon is working on one as well. Both have partial reusable rockets. But old reliable Atlas V single use rocket was used for this launch.

Bezos is hiring:

https://blueorigin.wd5.myworkdayjobs.co ... S_R40215-1

hopefully he will treat his florida engineers better than he treats his rank and file employees.

Thank you very much for the pik of the Launch Fenn...
About time thry got it off the Launch pad .. Think on the NASA vid at their site, was a " mission go" inspite of
of certain system not being up to par..Reasoning was reported that each system had three levels of back up systems .
Strange way to run a Rocket SHIP.

TL;DR: Job ad reveals roles for space launch and lunar living projects. SpaceX and New Glenn have reusable first stages, while second stages are more complex. The BE-4 engine replaces the Russian RD-180. The Atlas V's N22 configuration used for the Boeing Starliner launch has no fairing and features RD-180 and RL10 engines.

(Warning: info-dumping ahead)

The job ad lets you peek behind the curtain or sneak a look behind the stage door. It lists the kind of engineers being hired and the job duties like rapid manufacturing and testing iterative prototypes, designing for manufacturability. There are related jobs listed for a “lunar permanence” project.

As in “go to the moon and live there permanently”.

The Starliner (the part that looks like a hubcap sitting on the top, not the first stage closest to the ground, and nor the second stage, the top half of the candle shaped part of the rocket) is reusable. So it can come back down and go up on another rocket. Space X Falcon 9 has a reusable first stage. The first stage fires first, gets the rocket off the ground. Atlas V has a single-use First Stage. Reusable saves costs for the next launch. A reusable First Stage is easier because it doesn’t ever leave the atmosphere, so it doesn’t have to survive re-entry. I think New Glenn has a reusable first stage too. The reusable second stage is harder. It has to burn without oxygen in the air when thrusting into orbit. If it is to land without smashing (or sinking in the ocean) it also has to survive the heat of re-entry so it needs heat shields which adds weight, and has to rocket to a landing, so it has to have some part that can burn in oxygen.

Jarvis (Bezos) is trying to solve that problem. Starship (Elon) is also working on it. Elon seems to be a bit ahead.

The BE-4 engine (Bezos) is used for New Glenn, but also for Vulcan Centaur (ULA). Atlas V uses a Russian Engine and Russia won’t sell them to the USA any more (because Ukraine). The Russian First stage for Atlas V is a NPO Energomash RD-180. So the BE-4 basically answers the question “what can we do if we can’t get the RD-180s any more?”. The Atlas V can be launched in more than one configuration. That means they can mix and match major parts and still call it an Atlas V. For this Starliner launch they used the N22 configuration. The first stage (also called the booster) they used two RD-180s side by side. Double your thrust and double your fun.
The second stage (called “Centaur”) uses two RL10 (United States Aerojet Rocketdyne) engines. The first stage gets the rocket from ground to upper atmosphere, the first stage drops off (is not reusable) to decrease weight and mass then the second stage gets the payload/spacecraft into orbit.
The “N” in the N22 designation means No Fairing (which is an aerodynamic cover for the spacecraft to make the whole rocket more streamlined). The Boeing Starliner or CST-100 spacecraft itself is streamlined enough without any fairing. The Boeing Starliner spacecraft sits on top of the Centaur second stage. If a fairing is a hardtop convertible, the Starliner drives with the top down.
So N22 means N=no fairing, 2=two engine first stage, 2=two engine second stage.



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_V#N22

Thank you Fenn , getting better understanding of the Launch and associated Rocket engines .. helps give more detail
to this Event . Can now name each engine as they fire or drop away during flight ...

imagine how fast a car could go with all those rocket engines on it.

Yahooo.. a Rocket Powered Car....>>>>>>>>>>zoom zoom zoom... ...

October 23, 1970 Blue Flame (a rocket car) set the land speed record for the "flying mile" at 622.407 mph (1,001.667 km/h). This is about Mach 0.8 (8 tenths of the speed of sound). It also made a record for the "flying kilometer" at 630.388 mph (1,014.511 km/h).

For a "flying mile" the vehicle doesn't have to begin at a standing start and may all ready be in motion (flying) at the start of the record making measurements (starting the stop watch, and entering the pre-measured mile). Same for the "flying kilometer". Kind of like making a running start, or a flying start at the beginning of the 50 yard dash.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Flame

Escape velocity for earth is between Mach 32 and Mach 33, so rockets that leave earth are much faster than rocket cars.

ISS is in orbit between Mach 22 and Mach 23, so Starliner probably reached a maximum speed around that.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has done around Mach 500

Yes. Famous rocket powered automobiles (tested on the Bonneville Salt Flats) only move as fast, or a hair faster, than passenger jets like the 747 do in the sky.

Less than the speed of sound. Though the landscape at ground level coming at you at 900 feet per second probably looks a lot scarier than the scenery moving at you at that same speed seven miles up in the sky.

Your car would have to go 18000 mph to go into orbit, and 25 K mph to reach escape velocity.

One of the first attempts to put capitalism into space was a German company in the 1980s called "Outrag" (think that it was pronounced "out + rag", not "outrage", but who knows?).

They built launch pads in the jungles of the Congo. Made bids to send up satelilites. And were extremely low budget.

They ditched the "multi stage" concept (like the saturn V), and used ready made long narrow plumping pipes filled with rocket fuel that were arranged like a bundle of pencils. Their rockets would gradually shed the outer pencil-like-rockets from the bundle, and ignite the inner ones in turn, as they rose rather than jettisoning large "stages".

They were featured in an article in Penthouse, but...I never saw, nor heard, about them ever again.