• superkret
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      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
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        3 months ago

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

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          “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.

          • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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            3 months ago

            the national train company here said this, along with a list of 10 things they’re specifically doing to improve service, and i had forgotten how it feels to actually feel positive about a company statement for once

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

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

  • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    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
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      3 months ago

      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
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        3 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.worksM
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      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.

      • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        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.

        • SpacePirate@lemmy.ml
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          3 months ago

          Sunk cost fallacy. Fuck Boeing, why should the government keep funding this?

          • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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            3 months ago

            It’s not a usual cost-plus contract, to my knowledge, the government hasn’t funded it beyond the initial half billion. Boeing is taking a bath on this capsule development, needs the crew contracts to recoup, and that’s why I don’t believe they will abandon it.

        • ramchak@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          They definitely should throw away 15 years worth of development if they are unable to deliver. Any more money spent would be wasted

        • superkret
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          3 months ago

          15 years of development, and they didn’t manage to build rubber seals that seal.

        • burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          3 months ago

          They’re more than $1.5 billion in hole on this contract, but they must be doing some math on how many future contracts they might miss out on if they back out.

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Don’t throw good money after bad (or the sunk-cost fallacy).

          Though it’s not like all that development is lost. They retain all they’ve learned and developed. Just costs a bit to store the data.

  • voluble@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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?

  • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.

      • shirro@aussie.zone
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        3 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
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    3 months ago

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

    • astrsk@fedia.io
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      3 months ago

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

      • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        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
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          3 months ago

          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
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            3 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
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            3 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.

        • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          The Dragon will be half-crewed on the way up, so that’s exactly what they’re doing