But the crying at Boeing…
NASA kicked the Starliner to the curb yesterday.
Boeing will return its Starliner capsule from the International Space Station without the NASA astronauts that it delivered to orbit in early June, the agency announced on Saturday.
With Starliner coming back to Earth empty, NASA will now have astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams return via SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which is expected to launch its ninth regular mission to the ISS for the agency on Sept. 24.
Full article, HERE from CNBC, h/t Stretch
Well, NASA finally got off the dime and made a decision. Now SpaceX gets to do a rescue, in addition to ‘building’ new suits for Wilmore and Willams since the Starliner suits won’t connect to the Dragon capsule.
One thing that was pointed out yesterday evening is that ‘supposedly’ there is an international agreement on ‘standardized’ fittings that will work with ANY capsule. Obviously, Boeing/Starliner didn’t do that. So until Dragon (now down two astronauts goes up in September, Wilmore and Williams are drifting in the wind if there is an emergency evac of the ISS.
I also wonder ‘when’ they will kick the Starliner off the ISS???
And how many heads will roll at NASA and Boeing over this mess? Apparently the losses (so far) are over $1B to Boeing’s bottom line.
Here is the 1 hour and 20 minutes of the Boeing Crew Flight Test Status News Conference, courtesy the “SPACE AFFAIRS” YouTube channel.
https://is.gd/S69Xwv
The video is cued to 17m0s when the news conference actually starts.
Present on the panel are:
– NASA Administrator, Bill Nelson
– Associate Administrator, Jim Free
– Associate Administrator for Space Operations, Ken Bowersox
– Commercial Crew Program Manager, Steve Stich
– International Space Station Program Manager, Dana Weigel
– Flight Operations Director, Norm Knight
Prayers up for Butch and Suni. I hope they get a nice fat contract on a book deal for this. I’d buy it. I wonder what their NDAs look like…
They should make a TV show about them. They could call it “Lost in Space.”
Glad I set my mug down before reading this!
Point/Counterpoint
They bought their ticket. They knew* what they were getting. I say let them burn.
*Yes they did know. Everything that has kept Stayliner at ISS was known before launch. Still, after several delays due to ‘concerns’, they were a Go for launch.
Probably not hurting Suni’s feelings too much, She had like 400+ days on orbit so she’ll be like 600+ when she’s done. It probably puts her second for time on orbit by a woman (Peggy Whitson is first right now at 665 days and change)
Finally! Disengage that puppy and open a spot for Dragon X. And it might be Boeings bottom line, but it’s taxpayer dollars.
I am sorry to see a once great name go the way of the dodo, but they brought it on themselves.
And on the other side of the coin…..
Polaris Dawn launches Tuesday
https://polarisprogram.com/dawn/
Exactly how are they going to disengage? Last I read it had to have someone on board.
I wonder if 1) they found a way to add the needed software to return it to remote control, or 2) they think they can do a hybrid where someone in a smaller suit sets everything up from inside, then gets out and the programs kick in from there?
No idea otherwise.
The non standardization by NASA is astounding. The secondary question is why not take the Polaris Dawn mission capsule, after they execute their planned space walk, move orbit down to the ISS lane and pick up the 2 stranded astronauts? Polaris surely has room for them and NASA did provide emergency breathing packs in their capsule that are portable…… they omitted that feature, didn’t they? This also presumes the failed capsule will be jettisoned from the ISS making room for docking of Polaris (and that SpaceX DID standardize to match the docking).
IMHO NASA should be shut down, privatize all programs and all authority for launch reverts to local state government. Centralized control from Washington simply guarantees continuing screw ups seeing no one is ever held accountable for anythning.
Many reasons for this
1) there probably isn’t enough delta v to get to the ISS orbit and then return to earth with 6 crew.
2) Although nominally the Dragon crew has seating for 7 Polaris Dawn is only rigged for 4 and extra weight for the other seating might endanger its mission
3) The Polaris Dawn Dragon capsule has a special nose cap/adapter to make the spacewalk easier. This is likely NOT compatible with the ISS docking port.
4) Polaris Dawn is a privately funded mission. Unless Nasa/Boeing is willing to compensate Jared Issacman and SpaceX for the cost of the flight Neither he nor SpaceX have ANY requirement to help.
I presume spaceflight will follow the traditions of the Sea for rendering aid. If someone is in imminent danger a ship is required to do everything possible short of risking its OWN crew or passengers to render aid. However, here there is no imminent danger. Suni and Butch are fine and properly fed. When the next Dragon is sent to the station It will likely be sent with ONLY commander and co commander with Butch and Suni thus taking the places of a couple mission specialists and the drain on the ISS’ foodstuffs will be reduced and we are back to a static situation. The only inconvenience being to Butch and Suni who Boeing should compensate for their lost time.
As for non standardization I am unsurprised. Nasa did NOT provide a standard suit description nor connection standards in the requirements for commercial crew. Heck NASA is still trying to spec out a suit for EVA’s and the Boeing suit is simply a cleaned up version of the old Pumpkin suit derived from vintage ’60s high altitude suits for SR71/U2 and instituted for use after Challenger. NASA management since Obama has cared little for manned spaceflight other than for the larger budgets it affords them
Honestly I believe NASA threw money at SpaceX just to pretend that this was a commercial endeavor. NASA management from the Obama Admin on average did NOT expect SpaceX to succeed at all, they expected Boeing to win by a mile. That SpaceX did it on less than 1/2 money Boeing was awarded is a sign of their determination to perform manned flights.
Boeing stock will be interesting to watch on Monday. With this added to their current failures, I wouldn’t be surprised if some leveraging is in the works.
Boeing planes and now this space equipment have shown Boeing having production, software, and Engineering problems. This would be a killer for a company that has their life tied to that.
The original Boeing company merged with McDonald-Douglas many years ago and changed how they were run and started on this path. Many of their operations are contracted out like other companies. The lack of Quality Control is leading to these problems. This is going to hit to stock and bottom line shortly.
Don’t forget their Dreamkiller fiasco.
“The original Boeing company merged with McDonald-Douglas”
Negative.
McDonnell Douglas BOUGHT Boeing, but kept the name because Boeing has better name recognition and “goodwill” than MD.
And it was all downhill from there.
Off topic, but then we have this–
https://theviewfromladylake.blogspot.com/2024/08/who-will-be-manning-our-ships-kamala.html
Ag- Thanks!
All- Yep, LOTS of questions still…
TXRed- I ‘wonder’ if Dragon will bring a copy of the autodisconnect and flight software? Would YOU want to climb in there and do a prep? I sure as hell wouldn’t!
Failure in this administration is a resume enhancer.
Also- seeing her name in comments, guess who’s the Chair of the National Space council?
Kurt- Interesting innit…
NASA has never built its rockets and capsules. Heck, even construction of launch facilities and ground operations are contracted. NASA has been through the incompatibility issue before, anyone remember the round vs square CO2 scrubber issue in Apollo 13? Apparently that nugget of wisdom was forgotten in the intervening decades and has to be relearned.
What I want to know is why can’t they just build an adapter for the suits?