Boeing Starliner upcoming launch, first w/crew

[floobydust]

Not a surprise. The way Boeing does engineering is not working well at all, it's a fail. The fiasco with the valves, changing contractor then the lawsuit over stolen IP showed it's all about the money.

The spacesuits being incompatible between SpaceX and Starliner's is interesting. They're too big to use so they'll have to send up extra SpaceX suits that fit I guess but I thought they are custom fitted.

[themadhippy]

Astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams are now expected to stay on the International Space Station until next year

Hope there getting paid overtime and not time off in lieu

[coppice]

As I recall, when the Starliner returns to earth at least some of the questionable hardware will be destroyed in re-entry, obviously making it more difficult to analyze the problem(s).

I think you are referring to the ship being in two parts, only the crew module of which is designed for a safe descent. The part where all the hardware problems seem to be always burns up on re-entry. That said, the Strarliner is not loaded with the software needed for automated descent. They apparently can't even safely detach the ship from the ISS, and make it go safely away without a crew right now. They need to get appropriate software prepared and loaded into the ship. It sounds like there is still plenty of opportunity to screw things up. Maybe nothing will get back for analysis.

[SiliconWizard]

Astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams are now expected to stay on the International Space Station until next year

Hope there getting paid overtime and not time off in lieu

They should sue.

[magic]

They should have known about "if it's Boeing I'm not going"
Think positively: the automatics could have crashed them, but they made it to the station. With the door.

[SiliconWizard]

They could have crashed into the ISS while attempting to dock, wreck the whole thing and make it deorbit.

[coppercone2]

Its funny though because we were talking seriously about going to live on mars but we can't get the proverbial cat out of a tree.


I think they need to put serious money and R&D into space instead of just constantly trying to go further like some dare devil stunt

This really high lights the effects of all that NASA budget slashing IMO. A 6 month delay is a disgrace. I don't disagree with it because the facts are the facts but this scenario really tells you about the state of affairs regarding space.

At least safety culture is OK in NASA because their not telling him to jump out of the window for good publicity.


Congress finally got the egg on their face from years of budget slashing NASA. Now the USA looks like a clueless joe with his cat stuck in a tree. I get the same feeling about buildings, we can build them tall, but we can't get people out when they catch on fire. It makes all these achievements feel like stunts because they do not work right.

People already rage after getting a flight delay for 6 hours lol

[magic]

What "we"?

It's Elon Musk whose ambition is to drive his Tesla on Mars and it's US gov and its beloved contractors who stranded their cat on a tree.

Myself, I look at all of that and I'm not going anywhere

[coppercone2]

its like alot of people that seemed to be getting serious about it