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SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS

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Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS

#151

Post by nick3443 »

tedunangst wrote: post #123
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you had said that they were left at an outpost with other people for six months it somewhat loses it's "rescue" vibes When a country pitches into instability and nations evacuate their citizens, are they not rescuing them? I suppose I’d invert the question: why does framing the mission as a rescue bug you?

I think rescue implies a higher degree of imminent peril.

I agree. The dictionary definitions mostly involve urgency or distress in the situation. This would be more like a retrieval I think.

"SpaceX capsule used to retrieve astronauts stranded on ISS by malfunctioning starliner."

Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS

#152

Post by anonylizard »

nimbius wrote: post #83
dotnet00 wrote: post #3

Man the reporting on this ordeal has been so awful and so representative of how media misleads the public into thinking things are worse than they actually are. It isn't a rescue mission, it's a regular crew rotation mission with modifications to account for the extra crew left on the station, and those crew are 'stuck' only in the sense that they're expected to stay there as part of their duties and it would be unne…

Occhams razor might say the reasons to downplay this incident are overwhelmingly more attractive. - Boeing is a fortune 50 company and is a direct contributor to news media advertising revenue. - Boeing is a darling of US aerospace and a bulwark of us international projection of soft power and defense. Telling the truth will destroy the us aircraft market. - china does not have this problem with its space program. Th…

Well no one is losing confidence in US space program. Since SpaceX has the overwhelming global lead in space engineering.

The main issue is, NASA for political reasons, has to keep the delusion of the 'have 2 suppliers'. Boeing is clearly nonviable anymore, but as you said, it has tremendous influence in US congress, so NASA pays them billions.

NASA's programs would be simpler if they simply just dumped all the money to SpaceX, but that could cause longer term issues. The other solution would be partnering with Airbus as the backup supplier, but that would cause political earthquake.

Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS

#153

Post by aylmao »

sneak wrote: post #94
LeroyRaz wrote: post #87

To everyone saying "oh, the astronauts like having to be up there. It is an opportunity." You get that they have no choice, right? And that for multiple reasons they are going to put the best spin on the event. For one, for their own sanity, they are going to be as positive and optimistic as possible. For two, there is likely a huge PR pressure to be as positive and optimistic as possible. Being in space is a pretty…

It’s still an opportunity. You can have more kids, but most people probably only get maximum one chance in their life to spend half a year in space, even if they are extremely lucky. It’s also not like they didn’t know that death or delay or anomalous/inconvenient conditions weren’t possibly on the table. They’re test pilots, after all. Any landing you can walk away from is a good one, even if it takes a year. Sunita…

> You can have more kids, but most people probably only get maximum one chance in their life to spend half a year in space

That's not generally how having kids works haha. As you mentioned Sunita Williams has been to space five times. She's also 59 and the only information I found on kids is that she was looking to adopt a kid in 2012. It doesn't sound like she'll be having any more kids.

> Sunita Williams (one of the two stranded) is up there for her fifth(!) trip to the ISS [...] I don’t think she minds being in space, even if it’s unplanned.

Personally, I've been many times to New York. It's a very fun city. But if I booked a weeklong trip that against my will it became a yearlong one, I'd mind it.

I also can't speak for Sunita Williams, just for me in this hypothetical NYC stranding. It could be a very fun year, for sure. I'd certainly try to make the most of it. But I'd mind it.

[1] https://archive.ph/20130126165056/http://articles.timesofind...

Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS

#154

Post by philwelch »

nick3443 wrote: post #135
ethbr1 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was not, considering Starliner landed safely about a month ago. NASA was uncomfortable with the amount of risk in a new vehicle exhibiting anomalous behavior, for its first crewed re-entry. The headline here should be: "US glad to have two separate suppliers for crewed transport"

Three, if you are willing to count Soyuz. Are we still using Soyuz?

Yeah, we have an active seat-trading arrangement with the Russians where they send cosmonauts to ride Dragon and we send astronauts to ride Soyuz.

Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS

#155

Post by nick3443 »

renewiltord wrote: post #52
dotnet00 wrote: post #3

Man the reporting on this ordeal has been so awful and so representative of how media misleads the public into thinking things are worse than they actually are. It isn't a rescue mission, it's a regular crew rotation mission with modifications to account for the extra crew left on the station, and those crew are 'stuck' only in the sense that they're expected to stay there as part of their duties and it would be unne…

Yeah, something people forget is routine things happen. But people like to think of events as singular unexpected grand things even if they’re just part of an older expected thing. Take D-day for instance. We make movies about the landings and how dramatic it was, but the truth: a regular troop rotation into territory, something routine for the armed forces.

No

Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS

#156

Post by bnralt »

iterance wrote: post #73
mannyv wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well hmm. NASA decided Starliner wasn't safe enough to use for the return journey, so the astronauts stayed on the ISS until the next ride became available. Originally the astronauts were supposed to go back on Starliner. Now they're taking another ride back. Is that considered a rescue? Well, it depends. If you get left behind on an island because your ride wasn't safe and another boat picks you up, is that a rescue…

Following the analogy... you're on an island. A ferry has showed up at the island every six months or so for the last 40 years. The last ferry that showed up broke before it could leave the harbor. No need to worry, though. Another ferry's coming in six months and there are plenty of supplies on the island. Is it rescue? Maybe in the sense that you can't leave when you wanted to and now you have to wait. But not in t…

Maybe this is better:

Cruise line A and cruise line B drop their passengers off at a remote island for 5 days, and then come to pick them up and take them home. After cruise line B drops theirs off, the cruise ships breaks down, and the passengers can't be picked up after 5 days, so they're stuck on the island with no immediate way to get off. Cruise line A says "OK, the next cruise ship we send will be at half capacity, so we can get the passengers from cruise line B off the island and get them home."

Is cruise line A rescuing the passengers from cruise line B? I'd say yes.

Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS

#157

Post by hindsightbias »

anonylizard wrote: post #149
hindsightbias wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if NASAs decision was largely influenced by social media hysteria and not objective engineering? Of course NASA would never give into outside pressures - cough, Challenger, cough. And what I read on the internets is so massively factual.

Well, that was probably Boeing's line for the MAX disasters, until the second one occurred. Boeing is clearly undergoing systemic collapse in engineering ability, so anything Boeing has to be treated with extreme suspicion. Its like hiring a 3-time-felon to babysit, like you can do it, but there will be 0 tolerance for any deviance.

They build a plane with 15M parts every single day. Their worst engineer is better than 99% of those on HN.

Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS

#158

Post by msravi »

colordrops wrote: post #117
iterance wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Following the analogy... you're on an island. A ferry has showed up at the island every six months or so for the last 40 years. The last ferry that showed up broke before it could leave the harbor. No need to worry, though. Another ferry's coming in six months and there are plenty of supplies on the island. Is it rescue? Maybe in the sense that you can't leave when you wanted to and now you have to wait. But not in t…

It sounds like everyone in this thread is in complete agreement about the complex parameters and details and yet we are arguing on the scope of the label.

The real problem is that the company doing the rescue is SpaceX, and that's owned by Elon. And HN does not like Elon.

Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS

#159

Post by nick3443 »

addaon wrote: post #29
eth0up wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I'm a victim of this reporting to some extent, because I remember this situation going on for months, and I keep thinking every time it's mentioned (often) how terrible it must be for these astronauts and why something isn't done about it. But I know almost nothing regarding details. I know I despise Boeing and that I admire astronauts and that reading this headline, I thought 'its about fucking time!' But if…

> Is the situation normal, or common? They went up on an experimental spacecraft on its shakedown cruise. They’re coming down on a different spacecraft than planned — a different make of spacecraft, even. That’s never happened before, and is neither normal nor common. The spacecraft type they flew up will almost certainly never fly again because of how badly the shakedown went. That’s never happened before to a manne…

>>The spacecraft type they flew up will almost certainly never fly again because of how badly the shakedown went.

I haven't seen this in the reporting. Can you share any context for it?

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