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

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171–180 of 372 posts

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

#171
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…

Calling it rescue or not doesn't matter. The primary objective was test flight for Starliner. Mission is a success, in that it proved Starliner is not safe. Now they're coming down using Dragon, which is the very expensive backup plan, and which is absolutely not what was planned. Whether you want to call it a rescue or not and play semantics or metaphors all night is your absolute right, but it doesn't change the fa…

When I was a kid a lifeguard helped me out in rough waves in the Atlantic. I was doing ok but not great and probably should have gone in earlier. I asked if he had rescued me because I wasn't really sure what was going on ... he said he had given me an 'assist'. It probably is the right word here too.

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

#172
post #148
post #142

Was the title edited after the fact by mods? The original title has the word "rescue." The top comment is questioning the use of this word. It seems likely that when the story originally appeared on HN, it had the accurate title reflecting the title of the article. Thus the comment from dotnet00, which I'm neutral on. But then, it would appear, the title was altered, to dampen a controversy? Is this how things are do…

They regularly tamp down on sensationalist headlines.

I'd prefer they just block articles that use sensationalist headlines (when possible without blocking the entire topic).

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

#173
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And will that overtime take into account the effect of time dilation?!

They are probably salary, not hourly. I wonder if they astronauts are like the military where they get extra on deployment.

Salary is set by the year, and with the calculated 6.7 milliseconds of time dilation in the reverse direction (i.e. they will be 6.7ms younger when they arrive), sounds like they should be docked a cent or so.

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

#174
post #138
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…

Let's be honest. The mental gymnastics to avoid calling it a rescue is just a political knee jerk reaction to Elon Musk's ownership in SpaceX. If you lose your ability to become objective based on your view no amount of philosophical discourse is going to be meaningful. It's comments like this why "cope & seeth" has flourished in the modern lexicon

Accusing me of taking issue with Elon's ownership is funny, considering that usually I'm accused of being an Elon shill :)

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

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are probably salary, not hourly. I wonder if they astronauts are like the military where they get extra on deployment.

Salary is set by the year, and with the calculated 6.7 milliseconds of time dilation in the reverse direction (i.e. they will be 6.7ms younger when they arrive), sounds like they should be docked a cent or so.

This brings up an interesting question of salary for near-lightspeed travel. Is it Earth's frame of reference, or the astronauts?

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

#176

I’ve nothing substantive to add, but I note that the logic gymnastics on display in comments from all perspectives is somehow telling. Of something. Not sure what.

It's just more evidence of the corrosive effect that injecting politics into everywhere has had, especially intersectional politics where unrelated domains are pushed to influence each other for political or ideological reasons in unrelated domains.

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

#177
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And will that overtime take into account the effect of time dilation?!

They are probably salary, not hourly. I wonder if they astronauts are like the military where they get extra on deployment.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/boeing-starliner-saga-do-n... claims "[There’s] no hazard pay, there’s no overtime, there’s no comp time". The top two threads on https://www.reddit.com/r/nasa/comments/1f0hi3o/how_do_astron... a) suggest a government pay scale with hazard pay for NASA astronauts, b) point out that they are likely paid as active duty Navy members instead.

On https://www.facebook.com/AstroClay/posts/do-astronauts-get-p... an astronaut (verified account of a NASA astronaut) mentions only a small per-diem.

https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/2264/do-astronauts... has a lengthy, but inconclusive discussion.

ChatGPT 4o-mini generates a vague "it depends" answer with no useful sources or statements that could be used to follow up with actual sources.

This is a question where I would have expected an authoritative answer to be easier to find. At least regarding your "like the military" statement, it seems like some astronauts are military, but what kind of extra pay they get seems to be hard to find.

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

#178
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…

It is a rescue mission

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

#179
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…

Easy to say while we're safe down on Earth.

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

#180
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling it rescue or not doesn't matter. The primary objective was test flight for Starliner. Mission is a success, in that it proved Starliner is not safe. Now they're coming down using Dragon, which is the very expensive backup plan, and which is absolutely not what was planned. Whether you want to call it a rescue or not and play semantics or metaphors all night is your absolute right, but it doesn't change the fa…

>> "If we'd have had a crew on board the spacecraft, we would have followed the same back away sequence from the space station, the same deorbit burn and executed the same entry. And so it would have been a safe, successful landing with the crew on board," said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program... https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/astronauts-would-h...

This is actually an incredibly stupid thing to say which reflects poorly on NASA management
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