Live data from Hacker News

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

apnews.com

201–210 of 372 posts

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

#201
post #56
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…

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…

From the Cambridge dictionary:

> Rescue: to help someone or something out of a dangerous, harmful, or unpleasant situation.

These are professional, paid astronaut. They both have decades of experience and both have experience being up in space.

If I were to bet they’re probably happy to spend more time on the ISS because I doubt they have many more missions left to do in their careers.

They’re in no danger. There’s no harm done to them.

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

#202
post #172
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

they changed it to match the title of the article itself from AP, not to tamp it down necessarily. This is what they actually usually do.

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

#203
post #146
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Rescue" conveys a much more negative situation than "unplanned itinerary change where the astronauts are safe and which they are happy about because they get to spend more time in space".

Bone deterioration equating to decades in a matter of months, heart health impact, time away from family... it's negative.

I bet if you asked each of them if they could extend such a unique experience - one they're unlikely to experience again - would they say yes? IN. A. FCKING. HEARTBEAT.

The postive's overwhelm the negatives by an infinite amount.

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

#204
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…

From the Cambridge dictionary: > Rescue: to help someone or something out of a dangerous, harmful, or unpleasant situation. These are professional, paid astronaut. They both have decades of experience and both have experience being up in space. If I were to bet they’re probably happy to spend more time on the ISS because I doubt they have many more missions left to do in their careers. They’re in no danger. There’s n…

Of course there is danger. They're in space! Even when things are going to plan it's dangerous.

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

#205
post #83
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…

>The comac airliner also directly competes with Boeing's beleaguered 737

Not in any remotely meaningful way. Some estimates suggest it will be more than a decade before Comac will have the manufacturing capacity to fill existing domestic orders (as of now they've built 9). Then there's the fact that their planes aren't nearly as fuel efficient as those from Boeing and Airbus - the engines may be imports but are neutered due to export restrictions. China's own airlines aren't even interested.

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

#206
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…

> very expensive

Is it though?

> the face value of each seat has been estimated by NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) to be around US$55 million. This contrasts with the 2014 Soyuz launch price of US$76 million per seat for NASA astronauts

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

#207
post #202
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

they changed it to match the title of the article itself from AP, not to tamp it down necessarily. This is what they actually usually do.

> they changed it to match the title of the article itself from AP

No--

    AP:
    SpaceX launches rescue mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck in space until next year
    Original HN title:
    SpaceX launches rescue mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS
    Current HN title: 
    SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS

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

#208
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

Personally, that's a part of it. I might it find more tasteful if Shotwell and her team (the actual heroes) were ones getting the credit here, but Musk will get the headlines.

But it's not a political knee jerk reaction. It's an actual jerk reaction to him being such an actual jerk. The guy, and his current cohot, are distateful wankers. Excuse my English.

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

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you’re not in danger, you’re not being rescued. You’re just being transported The ISS isn’t Treasure Island. There is always an elevated degree of peril. Particularly in an emergency condition.

But there's no emergency situation at the moment.

> there’s no emergency situation at the moment

It’s space. The ground state is emergency. I am training to be a pilot. Anything going off flight plan is an emergency. If ground control gives me corrective instructions, in the course of a mistake, I hope I will have the humility to not refuse its designation as a rescue.

Like, if you want an Exhibit A for why Boeing doesn’t deserve forward trust, it’s this response.

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

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You'll have to take that up with HR: Human Relativity.
Post reply on HN