-PJ
Posted on 04/04/2025 8:25:10 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Wilmore gave a near minute-by-minute retelling of what went through his mind when four thrusters on the Boeing-made spacecraft failed while he and Williams were attempting to dock at the International Space Station.
The near-catastrophic crisis caused Wilmore to lose full control of the plagued capsule, leaving the seasoned astronauts floating in the vast void of space until NASA’s mission control came to their rescue.
“I don’t know that we can come back to Earth at that point,” Wilmore, 62, recalled in an interview with Ars Technica.
Wilmore explained that flight regulations typically call for malfunctioned ships to abort docking – even within close range to the ISS – and return to Earth. But NASA waived that mandate, he said.
Panic eventually began to set in as the pair attempted to direct the defective ship toward the ISS.
The space explorer said he had shared concerns about the capsule’s thrusters – which are essential for docking – with Boeing in the months prior to takeoff after an uncrewed flight test to the space station experienced similar malfunctions.
Mission control eventually instructed Wilmore to relinquish all remaining control of the capsule to allow NASA to reset the thrusters – a directive he said “was not easy to do.”
The remote override restored two of the failed thrusters, giving the ship just enough control to safely dock at the space station.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
😆😆😆😆😆
Whew!
Dr. Buzz Aldrin (”Dr. Rendezvous”
@TheRealBuzz
Congratulations to @SpaceX for bringing back
@NASA Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams following their unexpected, extended mission aboard the @Space_Station! These astronauts’ steady poise and professionalism over the last several months are to be commended. We’re glad to have you home! #AProudSalute
Hahaha that was so silly I had to steal it!
I often wonder why silliness in Star Trek episodes seems even sillier than other silliness, then realized I probably shouldn’t dwell on it!
Gus Grissom's capsule blew a hatch and sank. Glenn's heat shield may have been loose. Gordon Cooper had to manually control his Mercury capsule after a guidance failure on re-entry (his landing was more accurate that the auto system could offer).
Neil Armstrong's Gemini capsule maneuvered uncontrollably when they tried docking to an Agena stage (stuck thruster) until he fixed it. Ed White's space suit swelled so much on our first space walk attempt, they didn't think he could re-enter his Gemini capsule.
Apollo 13 had a major blowout. We lost two space shuttle crews in flight.
Yet, we still go back. That is the spirit that makes America great. We didn't quit, we overcame.
You're thinking of the Challenger. Morton Thiokol said no because it was too cold for the o-rings, but NASA said yes and the Challenger blew up on throttle up.
With Columbia, it disintegrated on reentry due to broken heat shields that were damaged during takeoff when the protective foam surrounding the external fuel tank broke off and hit the underside of the shuttle.
The foam that was used was more brittle than the prior foam and had increased the shredding of foam during launch. The Clinton administration made NASA change the foam because the old foam was chlorofluorocarbon-based and was said to be damaging to the ozone layer.
-PJ
-PJ
Yikes!
****Yet, we still go back. That is the spirit that makes America great. We didn’t quit, we overcame.****
Similar to a lot of male jobs.
The World Trade Center took 60 lives to build, Hoover Dam 96,
the Panama Canal an estimated 27,500 deaths. Everyday lives are predictably lost doing everyday things, routine military is one of those things, we try to minimize the training deaths but we all know there will a lot of them every year.
Some deaths are more glamorous than others though, miners get some publicity when they die, but not a lot, construction workers get almost zero, they die and the work proceeds.
No, it was not a win for NASA or the Government.
You’re thinking of the Challenger. Morton Thiokol said no because it was too cold for the o-rings, but NASA said yes and the Challenger blew up on throttle up.
*****************************************************
You right - I mixed them up. Thanks for the fix.
It was chilly all right. Saw pics of icicles hanging off lines and the shuttle.
Tell your friend that by searching her name she would find that:
Williams has been married to Michael J. Williams, a federal marshal in Texas, for more than 20 years, and both flew helicopters early in their careers. In 2012, Williams expressed a desire to adopt a girl from Ahmedabad.[
Williams practices Hinduism. In December 2006, she took a copy of the Bhagavad Gita to the International Space Station; in July 2012, she took an Om symbol and a copy of the Upanishads.[49] In September 2007, Williams visited the Sabarmati Ashram and her ancestral village of Jhulasan. She was awarded the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vishwa Pratibha Award by the World Gujarati Society,[50] the first person of Indian descent who was not an Indian citizen to be presented the award. On October 4, 2007, Williams spoke at the American Embassy School, and then met Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India.[51] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunita_Williams#Personal_life
Then there is
Wilmore: "Now we're back to single-fault tolerant. But then we lose a fifth jet. What if we'd have lost that fifth jet while those other four were still down? I have no idea what would've happened. I attribute to the providence of the Lord getting those two jets back before that fifth one failed. - https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/04/the-harrowing-story-of-what-flying-starliner-was-like-when-its-thrusters-failed/
She is an American astronaut and a retired U.S. Navy officer. Williams served aboard the International Space Station as a participant in Expedition 14, a flight engineer for Expedition 15 and Expedition 32, and commander of Expedition 33, but whether by choice or infertility by either spouse, she is another career women with no children.
It was quite shocking to see Boeing get the F-47 contract given their quality failures of recent years...and racist DEI programs.
Boeing also has the KC-46 tanker.
Funny thing, the boom didn’t work when the contract was awarded 20 years ago, and TODAY, it’s STILL a POS!!!
Boeing’s quality is so bad that “They Can’t Even Pass Gas.”
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