On Tuesday, NASA confirmed that it is delaying the launch of its next astronaut mission to the International Space Station, Crew 9, until at least September 24. This is a significant slip from the previous date of August 18. They are updating the software.
A poster on the NASA forum summarized the Ars Technica information succinctly. It’s hard to defend Boeing after this. The lives of the two astronauts and the crew on the space station are in danger; to what degree, we don’t know.
- A spacecraft that is potentially unsafe to perform a crewed reentry is docked to the ISS.
- That same spacecraft can only be undocked manually from inside by crew.
- If they do that (which Boeing is desperately trying to convince NASA to do), that crew will be unable to do anything but attempt the potentially unsafe reentry.
- That same spacecraft has a nonzero chance of becoming unstable and crashing back into the ISS, endangering not only the crew onboard her but also every astronaut and cosmonaut onboard the station.
- The software fix and upload to correct the undocking problem could take as much as four weeks to accomplish.
- Even if that works, the thrusters on the SM are still funky and, until demonstrated otherwise, are unreliable.
Ars Technica:
The delay gives NASA more time to determine the flightworthiness of Starliner and whether it is safe to bring its two crew members, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, home. However, as Ars reported Monday, there is another reason for the delay—the need to update Starliner’s flight software should an autonomous undocking be preferred.
Well-placed sources said the current flight software on board Starliner, as configured, cannot perform an automated undocking from the space station and entry into Earth’s atmosphere. It will take about four weeks to update and validate the software for an autonomous return, should NASA decide it would be safer to bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth inside a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
NASA confirms Crew-9 will slip as it mulls safety of Starliner spacecraft. Also, NASA chief says he will make the final call on how Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams fly home.https://t.co/pi7JoertLw
— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) August 6, 2024
Official press release here.
12 days now. Just as a reminder, back during the Space Shuttle era, NASA would hold at least one, and sometimes two, briefings per day during flights. The MMT chair would be there and take questions before, during, and after the news conference.
— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) August 6, 2024
Elon Musk said they have too many non-technical managers at Boeing. [They’re probably mostly DEI hires too.]
-
The Importance of Prayer: How a Christian Gold Company Stands Out by Defending Americans’ Retirement
Although Boeing got $4.2 billion to develop an astronaut capsule and SpaceX only got $2.6 billion, SpaceX finished 4 years sooner.
Note, the crew capsule design of Dragon 2 has almost nothing in common with Dragon 1.
Too many non-technical managers at Boeing. https://t.co/bTXWAfxfrh
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2024
wpDiscuz
