11mo ago

NASA decides to keep 2 astronauts in space until February, nixes return on troubled Boeing capsule

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11mo ago

NASA decides to keep 2 astronauts in space until February, nixes return on troubled Boeing capsule

apnews.com /article/boeing-spacex-nasa-astronauts-starliner-e4e81e5a6c23dee2f8f72260ddea011c

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11mo ago

NASA decides to keep 2 astronauts in space until February, nixes return on troubled Boeing capsule

apnews.com /article/boeing-spacex-nasa-astronauts-starliner-e4e81e5a6c23dee2f8f72260ddea011c

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11mo ago

NASA decides to keep 2 astronauts in space until February, nixes return on troubled Boeing capsule

apnews.com /article/boeing-spacex-nasa-astronauts-starliner-e4e81e5a6c23dee2f8f72260ddea011c

60 comments

That's the correct decision. Last time NASA decided to send back astronauts on a known-damaged spacecraft, they all died.
Better to be safe.
- When was that?
  
  The space shuttle Columbia in 2003
And the MBA vampires have bled another formerly great company to death.
- But think of all the shareholder value they created!
  
  Stock lost 60% of its value with the last CEO.
  
  ...and then destroyed. Too bad most of the vultures who gutted the company are long gone.
  
  It's quite the opposite actually.
- Yeah, the last thing you want to see enshittified is space flight.
- Honestly the entire space industry has been a corrupt money grab from the start.
  It's why Johnson even pushed a moon landing to Kennedy, to get pork for his constituents.
  
  It was an inspired way to sell missile design to the public.
thats it then, isnt it. boeing is kinda done with space[craft] for awhile.
- Probably for the best.
- On the press conference call, Bill Nelson said he talked to the new Boeing CEO, who said they're committed to continuing with the program.
  
  I mean, what else is he gonna say, without tanking Boeing stock?
  
  Anything said in a press conference should be taken with a massive spoon of horse shit.
- Manned spacecraft, anyway. I will eat my hat if the next Starliner test flight isn't unmanned.
I feel so bad for these astronauts, I can't imagine being told I'd be stuck through the new year. and this puts the dragon crew half staffed for the work they needed to do. Boeing seriously fucked up here.
Glad they can come home on a safe craft, but there needs to be repercussions and answers.
- I'd probably be upset to have my return delayed that much, but I'm sure there are people who would be ecstatic that their space trip got extended. Hopefully those astronauts are the latter XD
  
  Astronauts knowingly take on risk, but the risk is usually of a sudden and fiery/icy death.
  To know that one’s bone density and god knows what else will be negatively impacted due to upstream fuckups must really suck.
Welp, that's that. I wonder how this will affect future flights. Will NASA require an extra test flight prior to Crew-1? If so, Boeing will be one rocket short, as all of the Atlas Vs have already been allocated.
- No way Starliner flies again. This whole thing has been a gigantic fiasco from day one. I hope they pull the plug and spend the money on programs with a future.
  
  boeing's spending the money not nasa, it's a fixed price contract
  
  I disagree, they have so much time and money investment into starliner, it has to fly again. They can't throw out 15 years of development.
The helium leaks on the RCS thrusters were a known problem before the Crew Flight Test, and Boeing gave assurances to NASA that the leaks wouldn't be problematic. What were those assurances based on? I don't know much about spaceflight, but it seems crazy to me that CFT was allowed to launch when there was a known issue that could impact docking and undocking with the ISS, and possibly deprive the capsule of a backup means of orienting for deorbit.
A person has to wonder - did Boeing's desire for a commercial success, at any point, impact their assessments of Starliner's safety? Is it possible that running this project at a set price was an impediment to proper, timely, and safe development?
- nah the problem wasn't the helium leaks, it's overheating of the thrusters
I wonder if it's a nightmare or a dream come true for them.
I mean it's obviously terrifying, but they're astronauts in space for an extended period of time who will have a unique story to tell when they come home. If they write books about it, I'd be interested to read them.
- Suni is now up to the 33rd most time spent in space and might climb up to 12th by the time this is all said and done.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_records#Most_time_in_space
  It really sticks for the astronauts who will get kicked off of Crew 9, though.
  
  It does, but I expect there is decent camaraderie among astronauts and they know who caused this.
  
  Surviving the first and perhaps only crewed Starliner flight, getting a full ISS rotation and a flight home on Dragon feels like a bit of justice for crew who put their careers on hold for Boeing. The Starliner assignments got the short straw and hard to imagine other astronauts not being sympathetic.
What are they doing about incompatibility issues between Boeing spacesuits and dragon capsules?
- Probably why it’s going to take till Feb— they’ll adapt it and launch the adapted capsule to retrieve them.
  
  Nope, the February return flight is an expedition that was already planned long before this issue, the only change is that they're going to launch with 2 crew members instead of the usual four, so they can bring back the 2 stranded by Boeing.
  NASA says they aren't considering any emergency missions, but it sounds that if they thought it was necessary they could ask spaceX for another launch.
  Push comes to shove, they could fit everything into the spaceX capsule that's parked at the ISS, but they don't really want to go over 4 occupancy unless it's an emergency.
  
  Couldn’t they just send up some Dragon spacesuits?
To nobody's surprise.

60 comments