Posted on 08/24/2024 10:27:24 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
The two Boeing Starliner astronauts who have been stranded in space for 80 days will stay in space for another six months, NASA officials announced Saturday.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are now expected to return to Earth in February, while the Starliner will be brought back unmanned.
Veteran astronauts Wilmore and Williams launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner back on June 5 — the maiden crewed voyage for the spacecraft — for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission docked to the International Space Station.
The test flight, however, encountered thruster failures and helium leaks so serious that NASA kept the capsule parked as engineers tried to find a solution.
Saturday’s announcement came on the pair’s 80th day in space.
The decision to bring the astronauts home in February was the result of a “commitment to safety,” Nelson explained.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Can the astronauts sue Boeing and NASA?
This is just cruel.
Be careful jettisoning that hellish construct, you never know it might blow the station when it detaches.
Built with the finest DIE work ethic from Boeing.
Maybe the stranded astronauts can call Elon…
“The decision to bring the astronauts home in February was the result of a “commitment to safety,” Nelson explained.”
Where was this “commitment” when they committed to launch knowing full well there were thruster problems and a helium leak?
I hope they packed extra socks and underwear...
No doubt he’s been working on it since Starliner launched.
Boeing is a “sinking ship”...or maybe it would be better to say Boeing is a “falling rocket”.
They may tire of the free room and board.
DOOMED!
I figured a Dragon capsule would do the trick but it might be booked up or already committed to a mission.
The lesson here is that these Astronauts took a job at NASA after NASA's history was available and well known to the public.
Have they had resupply yet? Two extra guys is a burden on resources.
SpaceX should do a flyby and spray paint “Hotel California” on the space station.
:-)
As for the hazards of expelling the partially failed StuckLiner and the risks to the ISS, please recall that the StarLiner has performed the undocking from ISS before, in an uncrewed test. Boeing has to upload the software to do this safely -- in other words, get the StarLine back to status quo ante.
Now, the only risk is that the uncrewed-undocking software needs to be able contend with failed thrusters again. The existing SpaceX and Soyez spacecraft are still at the station to serve as lifeboats if things go terribly sideways, and you can bet all the occupants of the ISS will be in those lifeboats, and come out only if the undocking is without incident.
Overcautious? You might think so, but Challenger and Columbia still weight heavily on the minds of NASA people.
Donner Party 2.0.
:-)
Matching the DEI and Environmentally Active work record at NASA.
Been there, done that
Boeing is one of the companies that colluded with Clinton to support the Chicoms and provide them with nuclear weapon related abilities and technology which also was to be proliferated.
In other words Boeing is corrupt.
How is that a good idea or even possible since Boeing's Starliner Stuckliner didn't come with the autonomous operation software and requires operators inside the vehicle to control the spaceship and keep it from accidentally smashing into the ISS?
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