this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
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Spaceflight

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[–] superkret@feddit.org 90 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] zzz711@lemmy.ml 20 points 2 months ago

The space shuttle Columbia in 2003

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 85 points 2 months ago (4 children)

And the MBA vampires have bled another formerly great company to death.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 41 points 2 months ago (3 children)

But think of all the shareholder value they created!

[–] Pistcow@lemm.ee 25 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Stock lost 60% of its value with the last CEO.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago

That's the final phase of the looting where the suckers are left to hold the bag. The vultures will have moved on long before.

[–] xor@infosec.pub 6 points 2 months ago

yeah but… the ceo’s get huge bonuses, can’t you just be happy that they’re happy?

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[–] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 months ago

...and then destroyed. Too bad most of the vultures who gutted the company are long gone.

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[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago

Yeah, the last thing you want to see enshittified is space flight.

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[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 50 points 2 months ago (3 children)

thats it then, isnt it. boeing is kinda done with space[craft] for awhile.

[–] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 38 points 2 months ago

Probably for the best.

[–] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean, what else is he gonna say, without tanking Boeing stock?

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

“We fucked up and we’re not sure how we’re going to fix it”.

If they said that, I would go buy Boeing stock immediately.

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[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago

Anything said in a press conference should be taken with a massive spoon of horse shit.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Manned spacecraft, anyway. I will eat my hat if the next Starliner test flight isn't unmanned.

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 40 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] brown567@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (10 children)

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.

[–] Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

boeing's spending the money not nasa, it's a fixed price contract

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

When has that ever happened?

[–] Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

only for starliner as far as i know, every other boeing thing is cost plus

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

finally NASA making decent financial decisions

[–] Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

they really dodged the bullet with this one

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[–] Bangs42@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Starliner and Crew Dragon both, if we're talking manned space capsules.

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[–] voluble@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 months ago

nah the problem wasn't the helium leaks, it's overheating of the thrusters

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] thesporkeffect@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

It does, but I expect there is decent camaraderie among astronauts and they know who caused this.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 4 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] remer@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What are they doing about incompatibility issues between Boeing spacesuits and dragon capsules?

[–] astrsk@fedia.io 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Probably why it’s going to take till Feb— they’ll adapt it and launch the adapted capsule to retrieve them.

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] astrsk@fedia.io 7 points 2 months ago (3 children)

So they’ll send up 2 extra dragon suits for the stranded astronauts to use? I thought space suits are so highly customized and tailored to each astronaut that they can’t just do that.

[–] voluble@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

At the press conference, NASA confirmed that there is a spare suit on the ISS that fits, and Dragon will bring up another one. Assessment was that this still presented risk, but less risk than the astronauts taking the Starliner back to earth.

[–] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago

They just need to get close enough. There's already one spare Dragon IVA suit on ISS that's a close enough fit to work. They'll send up another. During training, the crews actually use suits that were customized for other people while they wait for their new ones.

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[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

To nobody's surprise.

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