Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test, 17:25 Saturday 1 June

Quantum Erasure

So there's talk of sending up two crew in SpaceX dragon instead of the four, and integrating the two starliner crew into their mission. But that launch has been delayed a month because starliner is docked where the dragon would go, and for some reason doesn't have the software required to automatically undock and return, even though the non- crewed starliner had. It'll take a couple weeks to update the software

If they do join SpaceX crew9, it'll be February 2025 before they return

Itssoeasy

It’s an absolute **** show from Boeing. If they can’t even get the capsule down from the ISS.

Quantum Erasure

It's not...

ItHurtsWhenIP

The Boeing Starliner crew finally return to earth … 👀

Quantum Erasure

The astronauts spacesuits are matched with the seats in these vehicles (I presume battery / oxygen connection?) so they'll be moving the starliner seats into dragon crew 8 if they're going for an uncrewed undock, so that there'll be a safe evacuation route in case of emergency.

(They've done this before with Soyuz seats into Dragon capsule due to coolant leaks in Soyuz)

ItHurtsWhenIP

Decision on Saturday:

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2024/0822/1466307-nasa-starliner-spacex/

ItHurtsWhenIP

They'll be up there until next February. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️

https://apnews.com/article/boeing-spacex-nasa-astronauts-starliner-e4e81e5a6c23dee2f8f72260ddea011c

ItHurtsWhenIP

https://xkcd.com/2978

At least they're not alone down there.

Itssoeasy

So at 11:06PM our time starliner will undock from the ISS. Let’s hope everything goes okay and the trusters work as they are meant to.

josip

And its away. Live on CNN now

Poulgorm

It seems to have landed perfectly. I am pleased that SpaceX has a rival, once the technical problems with some of the thrusters in the Starliner are fixed up. The problem is not insurmountable.

Musk is a genius, but not a likeable one. It is better for all that SpaceX does not have a monopoly, going into the future.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122591317#Comment_122591317

Yes it's better that SpaceX isn't a monopoly. Gwen Shotwell runs SpaceX and they have engineers to distract Musk (not a genius) when he visits.

But Starliner isn't competition. There's two capsules and each has a six month turn around before the next flight. They are supposedly good for 10 flights.

The remaining Atlas V flights were sold out in 2021 and all except one are Starliner or Amazon so probably Bezos has a vote there. Any replacement launcher would have to be human rated too so there'd be huge additional costs.

Space X have 7 Dragon 2's and are still building them. And they are selling private flights and there's no shortage of launchers.

Still Dream Chaser is due to fly next year :)