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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

#221
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :)

Then maybe you're just a contrarian?

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

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Their worst engineers are the ones responsible for shipping planes + systems that have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. I don't think I'm a fantastic engineer, but I'm certainly doing better than those people when considering the metric of "how many people has my software killed".

You need to add a metric of "how many people can my software kill if it misbehaves", otherwise your point is moot.

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

#223
post #109

[flagged]

I don't see anything in the comment guidelines banning humor. I do however see that it asks us to be kind, not sneer at the rest of the community here, and to stop the tired comparisons to Reddit. The voting and flagging systems, along with the work of the moderators, are perfectly capable at managing the comments. No need to try to police them yourself.

You've clearly read the guidelines attentively so I'm surprised that your take is that if shallow jokes are not explicitly banned then they are welcome?

> Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

I interpret that part as saying that generic jokes and boring puns should be avoided. (The trope being a long chain of commenters trying to one up the previous pun, with zero substance)

Personally I'm neutral when it comes to puns in child comments.

But I really don't like top comments that consist of only a pun. Make an insightful comment and conclude with your pun, if you really must.

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

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When the ground state is emergency the definition of emergency changes because emergency cannot be the same as ground state...

If we go by technical definition of "emergency" then anything not by the plan is an emergency, but it's not used that way normally and it's not a technical publication.

If you are stuck in space with no lifeboat back then I agree it is an emergency, but they apparently have Starliner and it works. If they or Nasa are more comfortable with another option maybe that makes it an emergency or maybe not.

If it turns out Starliner doesn't work, that's an emergency. If there is radiation event coming then it's an emergency, but it is always an emergency in space regardless.

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

#225
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…

could I ask, under what conditions would you consider it a rescue?

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

#226

[flagged]

Hopefully everything will work fine. But if anything goes slightly wrong, those media companies will highlight Elon's name in every opportunity.

well if he wants the credit, he deserves all the credit.

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

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your default state on an island tends towards remaining alive. I'm guessing you spend most of your life indoors? On Earth, outside of the carefully regulated homes we've built as a society, the default state is dead and it takes tremendous work and constant vigilence to avoid that fate, only ever temporarily.

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 job knowing what it entails and went through years of training are like children wandering in the park, to paint SpaceX as their savior, is... wow.

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

#228
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…

Your analogy is flawed. Starliner has not been in service for 40 years, as in your example.

It’s a fairly new vehicle, newer than the Dragon capsule.

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

#229
post #156

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…

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 capac…

Cruise passengers stuck on an island without other transport would be rescued because personally for them it is completely out of ordinary.

Workers who signed up to get paid to be on the island and do some work? Knowing that there is only one line of transport and it can be irregular? Going through months or years of training beforehand? Maybe "rescue" is a sensationalization when used in a news headline.

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