Send the Boeing CEO up with a Crew Dragon, let him land his Starliner.
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2024
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In the middle ages, the guy who made the cannon had to stand next to it when it was first fired. Maybe we need to go back to something like this.
Do the astronauts have a say in this, because nobody wants to fly on a Boeing.
They say they really like Starliner, and I think they mean it. After all, it's not that bad! If you offered me a free trip to space in it, I'd jump at the chance.
In fact I'd offer to pay at least 1/3 of my net worth. (Sadly this doesn't quite equate to the current cost-per-astronaut of, what, $150m?)
This sort of feels like non-news – of course they’ve been considering an empty Starliner return with astronauts on a Dragon. That’s sort of the entire point of having more than one option of crewed access to space.
Not that I’d ever climb into a Starliner. Thing’s a bucket of bolts. But we know that, and they know that.
It would be pretty cool if this situation is the start of accelerating a crew-rating program for another craft. Maybe Dream Chaser? If this is so embarrassing that Boeing drops out of the program, it would be nice to have two options again.
It would be pretty cool if this situation is the start of accelerating a crew-rating program for another craft. Maybe Dream Chaser?
Don't threaten me with a good time! I'd love to see a crewed spaceplane mounted on top of a rocket instead of elsewhere.
Seems like a no-brainer to me
In more ways than one.
the most likely alternative would be to bring the astronauts back using SpaceX's Crew Dragon by removing two astronauts from the Crew-9 mission
The most likely? Not convinced. Wouldn't anyone removed from Crew-9 just be shifted to Crew-10? So it'd seem silly to announce Crew-10 only to have to change it a week later.
And even if they don't care about looking silly in that way, they might instead just go with one empty seat 'uphill' for each of Crew 9 and 10. Because that's a less drastic change to make to Crew 9 at such short notice.
But maybe I'm wrong. So, assuming the quoted scenario actually is what happens ...
I guess they'd have to keep the Russian (Gorbunov)?
And keep the capsule commander (Cardman)? But she's never been to space, so maybe the pilot (Hague)? I can't immediately see if he was expected to be the ISS commander, but if so, I guess that would give them a good excuse to 'promote' him over Cardman?
Wilson has had more launches than Hague (3 versus 2ish) but a lot less time in space, and I don't know if she would be as well trained for Dragon as the commander & pilot.
If NASA decides to send Starliner back empty, it's a vote of no confidence in Boeing that may lead the company to cut its losses and withdraw from the program.
How would this work, contractually? Would they have to give back the whole $4.1 billion (or whatever)? And pay penalties on top to cover NASA's costs?
The answer is: go with the team who have done this important thing many times before. That's SpaceX. The best rescue is no rescue, just like the best part is no part. This is will not be a big deal for them, just another launch, fulfill objective, return.