Over 50 years ago we got people to the moon and back, now we can't even easily get 2 people out of orbit :/
SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS
331–340 of 372 posts
Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS
#332> By the time they return, the pair will have logged more than eight months in space. They expected to be gone just a week when they signed up for Boeing’s first astronaut flight that launched in June. What kind of overtime do you think they are clocking?
How much do astronauts get paid anyways? According to chatGPT they don’t get overtime pay though might receive bonuses for situations like this.
Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS
#333Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Starliner stranded two astronauts in space. It didn't, because it wasn't simply broken -- it had unexpected behavior. It ended up landing fine. I'm uncomfortable heaping pejoratives on what we should expect NASA to do: make engineering decisions to minimize risk and maximize chance of mission success. Increasing the reputational or financial penalties to suppliers incentivizes exactly the sort of decisions that ble…
> it had unexpected behavior. It ended up landing fine By this measure the door blowing off the Alaska Airlines flight wasn’t an emergency.
If it had been a test flight using test pilots: yes, it wouldn't have been.
There's a reason astronauts for higher risk missions tend to be selected from operational and test naval aviation backgrounds, like both of the Starliner CFT astronauts were.
Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS
#334> By the time they return, the pair will have logged more than eight months in space. They expected to be gone just a week when they signed up for Boeing’s first astronaut flight that launched in June. What kind of overtime do you think they are clocking?
Heh I’d hate to be their families too. Sometimes I travel for work, if a week turned into 8 months it would be mayhem.
While I'm sure it can't be measured as a convenience from the family in any way you slice it I'm not sure one can compare the way they plan their and timing expectations around an orbital test flight to that of a standard work trip.
Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS
#335There was an anomaly in the second stage deorbit burn (which did not impact the payload). Falcon is apparently grounded. https://www.space.com/spacex-pause-launches-crew-9-falcon-9-... ( "SpaceX pausing launches to study Falcon 9 issue on Crew-9 astronaut mission" ) - "After today’s successful launch of Crew-9, Falcon 9's second stage was disposed in the ocean as planned, but experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn.…
If something happens to Dragon (non-zero chance) they are going to regret not coming back on Boeing's space-Yugo.
They would also regret if something went wrong while returning on a Starliner that everyone knew wasn't working as it should. Returning on a Dragon was the safest choice available.
Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS
#336Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point that half this comment section is missing is this is the sort of thing we want to encourage. The US spent extra money funding two separate vendors. One vendor exhibited a high level of risk in their first return. The astronauts were able to be returned on the second, already proven vendor. That's a great place to be in! The alternative, having to return astronauts on a high risk vehicle because it's the onl…
> One vendor exhibited a high level of risk in their first return. > The astronauts were able to be returned on the second, already proven vendor. Anyone reading this five years ago would be absolutely shocked to discover which vendor is which.
The most underrated and impressive achievement of SpaceX, IMHO, has been their designing missions for higher technical risk while managing safety impacts.
It's easy(ish) to go fast and break things.
It's much harder to go fast and break things, except also never break things when it really matters.
Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS
#337Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you took a different boat separate from the normal ferry, intending to leave right away but now stuck unable to use it, I would say the next ferry is rescuing you.
No? Because if you’re not in danger, you’re not being rescued. You’re just being transported. If I miss the last train across the bay, my uber isn’t rescuing me. I can always stay up to 5am by making a shady deal at the endup. But yeah, this is a black eye on boeing and definitely something that nobody wants to have to deal with.
How is being stranded in space "not in danger"?
Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS
#338Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
You might be right, only they can say. I just don't take their statements in a press conference at face value, but yeah there is that silver lining.
Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS
#339Earlier quoted context omitted.
And that is why if somebody finds a child wandering in the park alone, we say that the man rescued the child. Exactly as SpaceX is doing in this situation.
Yes and we also say you rescued me if I am bang out of cash and you lend me a fiver at checkout... If you see a news headline "man rescues child" you expect a direct threat like something like from a burning house. > if somebody finds a child wandering in the park alone, we say that the man rescued the child. Exactly as SpaceX is doing in this situation. Plus, saying astronauts, professionals who signed up for the jo…
Humans in space are less than children in the park. We've barely ventured out of our own atmosphere. Less than a 1000 people have been to orbit, and only 24 have gone to the moon. Out of those, only a dozen have landed on the moon.
And the moon is still the Earth system - we've never really left our own yard.
Re: SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure how soon if ever Boeing is going to be putting astronauts in space again. I see Blue Origin stepping up and taking their place. Agreed though, should be a set of compatible standards for space suits.
Normally I would disagree with you, but Boeing is facing death by a thousand cuts right now. I could see the US government not letting them fail however. So I’d give it 50/50, not 100% no-fly-again
Boeing and gov employed sunk cost fallacy. Even if they do cancel it they’ll just restart the same project in 5yrs for twice the cost and a new name