Posted on 09/03/2024 1:52:35 PM PDT by george76
The good news is that Boeing was able to update the automated flight software on its troubled Starliner space capsule, allowing NASA to return it unmanned to Earth no sooner than Friday. The bad news — or at least the serious question — is whether Starliner will ever fly again.
NASA decided last week not to fly astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home on board the same ship they flew to ISS on due to safety concerns about the service module's malfunctioning thrusters. While an astronaut is sometimes scheduled in advance to return to Earth on board a different space capsule, this is the first time anything like Boeing's snafu has happened...
the discussion between NASA and Boeing "was heated."
"Boeing was convinced that the Starliner was in good enough condition to bring the astronauts home, and NASA disagreed. Strongly disagreed," a NASA source told ... "The thinking around here was that Boeing was being wildly irresponsible."
...
When that NASA source .., "Boeing wasn’t happy," that was certainly an understatement.
So, what's next for Starliner?
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The company is already $1.6 billion in the red on Starliner.
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....
Complicating things further, it seems impossible that NASA will not certify Starliner for any manned missions until it completes a manned flight test — at the company's expense under the fixed-price contract. That's going to cost Boeing at least another $100 million, plus however many millions it will take to diagnose and fix those thrusters.
Fixing Starliner means more delays, too — months? years? And ISS is scheduled to be deorbited (by a souped-up SpaceX Dragon) in 2030.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Updating the software is step one.
Successful implementation is another step—with Boeing you can take nothing for granted.
There ain’t a whole lot of those old shuttle main engines out there, just how is Boeing going to add another manned flight test to it’s schedule? My back of the envelope calculations say they have 3 of the 4 engines required.
Is Boeing too big to die? (Boeing has already failed).
Will it survive re-entry?
Starliner doesn’t have anything to do with shuttle main engines; you’re thinking of SLS. (Which is another ridiculous boondoggle involving Boeing.)
NASA’s Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore report hearing ‘strange noises’ coming from faulty Starliner..
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4262216/posts
Boeing may or may not be able to bring the astronauts home by then.
We will soon all know.
My auto mechanic told me to ignore all strange noises coming from my car. They are just routine issues with my audio system.
Perhaps Boeing can hire him.
Lol.
Just off the top of my head, because I know nothing about aeronautics, it appears to me that just about everything Boeing produces is mismanaged, most likely due to good ol’ DEI.
Go Woke, burn up on reentry.
Thrusters have been leaking helium all this time. Upgraded software isn’t going to make them work. Chances for a landing and not burning up in the atmosphere? Would anyone want to ride home in this thing?
Just upload the 737 MAX software to the capsule, it got things down to the ground quick.
Thrusters have been around since the beginning of manned space flight. The idiots at Boeing can’t make a simple 60 year old technology work. And what is the problem? Software again, like the Max 8. Maybe they need to stop the silly information age crap and just do it properly.
Like I shouldn’t have to navigate a touchscreen and half a dozen drop down menus to use the radio in a car.
Scrapliner
The bigger question is will it even return safely??????
IF it does then you can go on to your next question.
No strange beeps BEFORE the O/S is updated for unmanned reentry...
Beeps start occurring AFTER the O/S is updated for unmanned reentry...
Coincidence??? or did someone overwrite a byte or two in the core code? I see a potential S0C4 error looming...
-PJ
Who had a haunted Boeing Starliner ?
When one Boeing door closes, another one opens.
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