Posted on 08/07/2024 5:19:28 AM PDT by Red Badger
'This adjustment allows more time for mission managers to finalize return planning for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test currently docked to the orbiting laboratory.'
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SpaceX's next astronaut mission won't get off the ground this month after all.
Crew-9, SpaceX's ninth operational flight to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA, had been targeted to lift off on Aug. 18. But it has been pushed back to no earlier than Sept. 24, the agency announced today (Aug. 6).
"This adjustment allows more time for mission managers to finalize return planning for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test currently docked to the orbiting laboratory," NASA said in an update this afternoon.
Crew Flight Test (CFT) is the first-ever astronaut mission of Boeing's new Starliner capsule. It launched June 5, carrying NASA's Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the ISS for a planned weeklong stay.
Starliner is still up there, however. The capsule experienced several issues on its way to the orbiting lab — most notably, the failure of five of its 28 reaction control system thrusters. CFT team members have been studying the problem ever since, trying to determine if and when Starliner can safely return Williams and Wilmore to Earth.
That work is still underway.
"NASA and Boeing continue to evaluate the spacecraft's readiness, and no decisions have been made regarding Starliner's return," NASA officials said in today's update.
We may get more clarity on Wednesday (Aug. 7): NASA will hold a press conference at 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT) "with agency leadership to discuss ongoing operations, including NASA's Crew-9, Crew-8, and Crew Flight Test missions."
SpaceX's Crew-8 flight is gearing up to return to Earth; it arrived at the ISS in early March, delivering four astronauts to the orbiting lab for a roughly six-month stay.
The Crew-9 astronauts are commander Zena Cardman, pilot Nick Hague, mission specialist Stephanie Wilson and mission specialist Alexsandr Gorbunov. Cardman, Hague and Wilson are NASA astronauts, whereas Gorbunov represents Russia's space agency, Roscosmos.
Elon needs to go rescue these people, Boeing has destroyed that company with all of their DEI BS!!!
Maybe Elon can create the space equivalent of Sea Tow?
SpaceTow!.....................I wonder if AAA covers that?...............
They can technically re-enter without suits, but it’s a violation of safety procedures. OTOH, presumably NASA or Boeing has their suit measurements somewhere, and the SpaceX folks could use those to make SpaceX compatible suits. And then they should fire the idiot who thought it was okay for Boeing and SpaceX to have incompatible suits.
they went to space for a couple of days, and they may break the space stay record!?
A three hour tour.
I went to Germany on a company installation for some equipment we sold the German AF, was supposed to be there for only a week, wound up being there 6 weeks.............
Did anything come of the briefing today? I wasn’t able to watch it and haven’t seen anything current about the problem except this which seems to leave everything still “in the air” - no pun intended...
boeing took the automated docking/undocking sequence out of the flight software. and will tke up to 4 weeks to put it back in, but unsure just what it will break...
They may be stuck till February 25....…......
Record is Russian cosmonaut with 430+ days so no they won’t get close to that record time. Which was set in the space station MIR.
Yes, I know.
But, who knows?
As things are developing, they may beat that? Maybe?
I remember, during the collapse of Soviet Union, there was some cosmonaut stuck in the space for lot longer than anticipated!
I wonder if the 2 Starliner astronauts will get to vote in the upcoming General Election??
Two, IIRC. One is occupied by a Dragon, the other by Boeing's POS. Gotta discard the trash before the next Dragon can come up.
They should simply send up a shutt.........oh.
They already voted for Biden.
Lol.
Even if 0bama hadn’t shut that misbegotten program down prematurely, there’s still be the same problem.
I’ve often wondered why the ISS didn’t have space vehicle permanently docked to do a space rescue mission, or to leave to go back to Earth in an Emergency.
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