344
submitted 3 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

The first crewed voyage of Boeing's Starliner was supposed to last around a week, but the high-stakes mission is still in limbo eight weeks after launch.

Their high-stakes mission was supposed to last about a week — but 56 days later, two NASA astronauts are still aboard the International Space Station, waiting as teams on the ground try to figure out how to bring them home safely in the Boeing spaceship they rode to orbit.

The beleaguered Starliner capsule has two problems: its propulsion system is leaking helium and five of its thrusters malfunctioned as it was docking with the space station. Mission managers were aware of the leaks before the vehicle lifted off but had said they were unlikely to affect the flight or the astronauts’ safety.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 months ago

The leaks were examined and found to benon-critical. They were even controllable. No helium has leaked since docking with ISS and there is plenty to get home.

The problem has been the crew capsule and the space propulsion module are 2 different pieces. The capsule comes home. The propulsion module gets ditched in space. NASA and Boeing have been taking their time to review the propulsion module (leaks and all) while docked at ISS because they can't bring it home.

Nothing much has changed from all that. NASA is in control of the mission. It's all proceeding at their pace. I wouldn't trust any spin Boeing makes. But watching the NASA mission reports shows there isn't much reason for concern.

[-] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 months ago

The fact that NASA has been considering the option to use the Dragon capsule to bring them back shows that there is some concerns.

[-] Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 months ago

That's overblown per the latest NASA update a couple hours ago.

While waiting on engine test results part of the mission team has been brainstorming all kinds of new return contingency ideas that were never an option in the past. The SpaceX idea is one of 4 or 5 mentioned. It's just the one the media ran with.

The main announcement today though was that all thrusters passed 3 hot fire simulations of a return mission. And that Starliner is likely fine to come home. The issues during approach seem to be understood and worked out.

[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 4 points 3 months ago

Glad to be wrong about all that. Being an astronaut was my biggest dream 40 years ago. But we can't all be astronauts, so I had to settle for my second dream - shitposting on the internet.

In all seriousness, it's important work for the future of humanity. I don't want someone to fuck it up for profit or because it's not their ass on the line. I'm glad those fears are unfounded here.

this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2024
344 points (98.6% liked)

News

23310 readers
3617 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS