Nine months after their 8 day tour, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are back on terra firma at 5:57 EST yesterday.
I can see it now… “Hi, honey. I’m home… It’ll be a few days while I get my land legs back.”
There has obviously been a lot of ‘soul searching’ at NASA over what mighta, coulda, shoulda been done, but all of that has pretty much been kept out of the media. The bottom line, is they are back safe.
THAT is what counts. Space is much more unforgiving than aviation in general, where the smallest thing can literally kill you and everyone around you. FWIW, I happen to agree with not bringing them back on Starliner. That was, to me, a gamble not worth taking with human lives.
The plan, which Musk had input to, made sense, with Williams and Wilmore filling in for the two Crew 9 astronauts they replaced on the station, they were kept busy and weren’t just sitting there twiddling their thumbs. Also, Musk et al had suits made up for them so they could come back on Dragon safely.
Although I will admit I’m not sure ‘why’ Boeing and SpaceX were allowed to design a non-standard sets of suit connections, which forced the need for ‘new’ suits. NASA had always been all about ‘standardization’ on suits/fittings/etc up to that point.
Yes, Musk’s Dragon is different, along with different suits, but he did that development outside NASA’s perview.
This does bring up the question of what is next, as the current plan is to deorbit the ISS in 2030, at which point it will be right at 30 years old and continuously occupied. The plans for ‘various’ replacements is apparently still being hashed out…
I guess it’s time to start rooting for the Mars mission!!!
I keep hoping for a rotating wheel ala “2001 a Space Odyssey.” Yeah too expensive, too complex, no real mission, etc. etc. Maybe if we had a real moon base, it’d work as a hotel and transfer point for regular travel to the moon.
I thought the Space-X suits had standard connections, and the Boeing ones didn’t? Anyway, the Space-X suits are cool, and I’m sure the crew will keep theirs as really neat mementos.
Then again, the standard for the connections is how many decades old? I presume we’ve learned a few things since then. Like how to make updated connectors plus adapters for old hardware. Kind of like how I can still get a USB to serial port adapter.
Depends on the design of the connector. An adaptor is another weight and space claim, may interfere with motion or clearances.
Boeing has had a bad case of Good Idea Fairy (*cough FCS cough*), and they and the NASA change approver need a proper smackdown.
May be worth making a few design, but do the needed lab and environmental tests first.
NRW- Interesting idea…
McC/PK-Boeing was definitely a one off design. And yes, adapters are NOT a good idea, one more failure point.
So, in 2030 some Indian up around Great Slave Lake will be astonished? (If you remember Skylab, you’ll get it.)
The arrival of dolphins made the splashdown even more special.
TB- LOL, probably…
LL- That it did! A welcoming party!!!
DOGE visits NASA? Conflict of interest?
IMO NASA needs a house cleaning.
WSF- Not a clue…