NASA said Thursday it will decide this weekend whether Boeing’s new capsule is safe enough to return two astronauts from the International Space Station, where they’ve been waiting since June.
Administrator Bill Nelson and other top officials will meet Saturday. An announcement is expected from Houston once the meeting ends.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner on June 5. The test flight quickly encountered thruster failures and helium leaks so serious that NASA kept the capsule parked at the station as engineers debated what to do.
SpaceX could retrieve the astronauts, but that would keep them up there until next February. They were supposed to return after a week or so at the station.
That’s why you always pack more underwear than you think you will need.
Come to think of it, how do astronauts do laundry?
Edit: I looked it up. They don’t. Dirty laundry is ejected into space to burn up on re-entry. So these poor travelers probably did not pack for an 8 month trip.
This is a great idea for a porn plot: several young, fit people in an enclosed space with nothing to do, cause they finished their assigned tasks weeks ago. Lots of positions that aren’t physically possible in earths gravity.
And they just ejected their last set of clothes.Now I just need funding to film it in zero G.
Vague memory from years ago, but I think that The Uranus Experiment 2 has a zero-g moneyshot.
Now I just need funding to film it in zero G.
I don’t wanna spoil things, but if you’re looking for floating strange liquids, maybe check out the new Alien movie.
Porn is going to do to commercial space flight what it did for the Internet and VHS.
Unfortunately, erections probably don’t work that well in zero G, although NASA has been neglectful in testing this thoroughly.
That makes zero sense
Mashable has answered the question.
“This meant Wilmore and Williams were forced to ration their clean clothes. Thankfully, a resupply mission earlier this month gave them a few extra pairs of scrubs.” Source
Imagine how worried their families must be this whole time. I can’t imagine “my family member has been stuck in space for months” is a type of stress that many people would relate to.
They probably shouldn’t worry so much. Way more people have died in Boeing airplanes than in Boeing spaceships.
deleted by creator
I hope everyone makes it back safely and without incident. That is the best outcome here. If they don’t, I hope congress has the backbone to fucking crucify Boeing, Inc.
Why would NASA burn its credibility like this to keep Boeing warm?
Because ultimately, NASA was supposed to oversee these projects and ensure safety for their astronauts.
They won’t. I think that’s why this is happening on a Saturday- stock markets are closed so it won’t instantly tank Boeing’s stock price.
Look back at the last few space disasters that killed people- Challenger and Columbia. In both cases it was the same- someone in NASA tried to sound the alarm but they didn’t listen because of organizational culture or whatever. Thus the people at the top of NASA could say with a straight face ‘we didn’t know, we will change culture to listen to the little guy who thinks there’s a problem’. And so, we all forgave them for making us watch heroes die on live TV.
This is different. The alarm has been sounded and it’s been sounding for months. Everyone at all levels of NASA, Boeing, and for that matter the general public know that Starliner has a very serious thruster problem. There’s no excuses here, no ‘promise to fix culture’ or new procedure that could forgive an accident. If Butch and Suni blow up on live TV there’ll be no excuses anyone for anyone to make because the decision is being made with everyone fully informed. The public at large will know it happened because NASA trusted ‘don’t bolt the doors on Boeing’ with the lives of American heroes. The American people will demand that heads roll at both NASA and Boeing and it may well happen too. We don’t like watching real heroes die on live TV.
So look at Starliner right now. The thrusters have problems that make them overheat and shut off when commanded to fire and, as of when I last checked, Boeing isn’t even sure what’s wrong.
Point is- if Starliner crashes with Americans on board, NASA won’t just be burning credibility. They’ll be burning themselves, Boeing, and the entire manned space program.
So I predict the flight readiness review before the press conference is just a formality, that the decision has already been made to bring our people back on Crew Dragon. And I’m sure someone from Boeing will be all thumbs up over an ‘overabundance of caution’.
Because NASA has been through similar shit, ie: 1986 Challenger and 2003 Columbia disasters.
So do the astronauts even get a say in this? I’m not sure I’d WANT to fly home in that thing.
Yes of course they do. You can’t force them, obviously.
Congratulations, you are going home! Please do not resist.
Ah, I’m not the only one who pushed some Friday work to the indeterminate “weekend”
Well, of course, but there can be some serious pressure put on them. Staying on board literally causes changes to future missions and a host of other things NASA had plans for.
Associated Press - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)
Information for Associated Press:
MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America
Wikipedia about this sourceSearch topics on Ground.News
https://apnews.com/article/boeing-starliner-nasa-astronauts-space-3e5d649dc6c68063835beae25d27ba18
My take on this is maybe a little calloused and mean but why is NASA involved in that decision? They hired contractors to take over the launch this part of their program. One of the contractors has an equipment problem snd that is on them to overcome in a safe manner. I don’t want the Boeing astronauts to get hurt but this isn’t NASA’s risk to accept or mitigate.
Because those are NASA astronauts on there, not Boeing employees. So NASA stepped in.
This flight is not a Boeing mission, its a NASA mission
