Atlas V is indeed an old launch vehicle. Starliner, however, is a brand-new (kinda) space vehicle. It still has to pass crewed validation.

Kinda new, because it has seen 2 flights, of which 1 a mission failure (failed to insert into target orbit due to software issues, several other issues identified hours before a potential hard mission failure), and the other an uncrewed test flight.

The Atlas V has absolutely nothing to do with the launch delay.

The "brand new space vehicle" is the Starliner.

> that there were two serious issues with Starliner. One of these involved the "soft links" in the lines that connect the Starliner capsule to its parachutes, and the second problem came with hundreds of feet of P-213 glass cloth tape inside the spacecraft

July CST-100 issues, announced right before a CREWed mission:

    * parachute "load limit data wasn’t correct and restest showed failure at a loading point"
    * wiring tape "flammable and will need to be replaced"
    * thrusters again: "Boeing also found more valve problems on the Crewed Flight Test capsule, as they were getting ready to load propellants onboard."

These are all serious human safety issues; any could be fatal. If I worked at NASA, I'd ask for gold plated resolution of these before an astronaut goes near CST-100.

source: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/06/twis-20230602/#more-...

Atlas V is also a ULA rather than a Boeing rocket. I'd be much more eager to trust my life to a ULA space vehicle than a Boeing one.

> trust my life to a ULA space vehicle than a Boeing one

So it gets 50% of your trust, then?

> The company, which is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security, was formed in December 2006.

Oh, I know. And I continue to be amazed at how much healthier of an engineering culture ULA has than Boeing for just that reason. It would be one thing if it split off before the "out-sourced profits" era at Boeing. I'm not familiar with how the amalgamation happened, though.

ULA is half Boeing

Yeah but Boeing brought the Delta into the marriage and LM brought Atlas. Pretty clear who brought to good stuff.

Delta IV and Delta IV Heavy have had a pretty good track record. Only one more will fly though, and ULA's replacement (Vulcan) is still vaporware (thanks in large part to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin having numerous delays in producing the engines for Vulcan... )

Delta didn't have a good track recording according to the accounting department.

> The Atlas V has absolutely nothing to do with the launch delay.

Boeing announced in May 2016 that their first crewed flight would be delayed to 2018 due to issues related to Starliner's Atlas V N22 launch vehicle. [0]

Starliner's problem isn't delays--it is a failed program. The only thing delayed is terminating the program and selling those high value but soon to depreciate Atlas V boosts to something worth doing. (7 of 29 remaining Atlas V (as of 2022) are allocated to Starliner. To get past 7 requires a whole new integration/test/certification for Starliner.)

Each contract required four successful demonstrations to achieve human rating for the system: pad abort, uncrewed orbital test, launch abort, and crewed orbital test. [0]

  Test                   Boeing [1]          SpaceX [2]
  pad abort              2019-11-04      2015-05-06
  uncrewed orbital test  2022-05-19      2019-03-08
  launch abort           N/A             2020-01-19
  crewed orbital         N/A             2020-08-02

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Crew_Program

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Starliner

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Dragon_2