6 ms·

Boeing and NASA move forward with historic crewed launch of new spacecraft

23 points by peutetre 3y ago

gigatexal 3y ago
Hopefully the door to the ship doesn’t fly open during the mission … If there were decent competition or many firms in the space I wonder if Boeing’s failures in quality making planes would affect its ability to get government contracts
- pixiemaster 3y ago
  well in this case the alternative are probably Space Karens FullSelfPiloting RoboRocket
  - LorenDB 3y ago
    Please note that SpaceX has successfully launched 12 crewed flights, and their "full self pilot roborocket" has landed itself 300 times so far, with the oldest boosters having flown 20 times each (and SpaceX plans to stretch that to 40 flights each). If you don't like Elon Musk, you can say so, but that's no reason to be dismissive of SpaceX's overwhelming success as a spaceflight company.
    - collingreen 3y ago
      If the poster doesn't like Elon Musk (clearly doesn't, from the extreme snark) then Elon's relationship with SpaceX seems like a very valid reason to consider them together, whether you think the company is doing well or not. It's kind of silly to tell someone the CEO has no impact on a company and that the CEOs previous antics are no reason to dismiss the company's current output.
- _joel 3y ago
  It's ok, they checked it whilst replacing all of the flammable tape they used to wrap the avionics :/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/crewed-starliner-launch-delayed-by-flammable-tape-botched-parachutes/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/crewed-starliner-...
- tjpnz 3y ago
  Nothing would surprise me at this point. Every time they address a problem they find a bunch of new ones. God knows how many more they're introducing in the process. I wouldn't want to fly on that thing unless the Boeing CEOs (current and previous) were also present.
  - jprete 3y ago
    Might not be enough. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_submersible_implosion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_submersible_implosion
- allanmacgregor 3y ago
  I came here for this comment, thank you!
deleted 3y ago
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_joel 3y ago
I would not like to be in that capsule, that's for sure.
- api 3y ago
  I’d be less worried about the Boeing factor here. NASA peer reviews all designs and checks the final system for anything manned or high value. It’s possible that Boeing being incompetent and NASA being tied up with them is a cause for delays. Not sure but it seems plausible. I wonder why they wouldn’t use Falcon Heavy though. Starship is still in development and not ready for any of this but FH is flight proven and cheaper.
  - boricj 3y ago
    > NASA peer reviews all designs and checks the final system for anything manned or high value. That didn't prevent the first orbital flight test of the Starliner capsule from being a complete mess that almost resulted in the loss of the vehicle. > I wonder why they wouldn’t use Falcon Heavy though. I don't think Falcon Heavy is human-rated.
  - icegreentea2 3y ago
    They aren't using Falcon Heavy because FH isn't human rated. In any case, Starliner could get by on a Falcon 9 (in terms of required performance), but it would be a big chunk of $$$. The Starliner is a pretty wide capsule, which is why they need that skirt on the Atlas V. The skirt controls the aerodynamic transition from the fatter Starliner to the skinnier Atlas underneath. The F9 is a different diameter from the Atlas, but still narrower than the Starliner, so they'd probably need a different skirt design. The obvious other replacement vehicle is Vulcan, which is actually fatter than the Starliner. I have no idea what integration issues that'd entail. As for why Boeing went for Atlas? Well... SpaceX is their literal competitor. Assured access also implies being willing to take a hit on cost efficiency to ensure diversity of both crew capsule as well as launch vehicle.
    - panick21_ 3y ago
      Vulcan is unlikely yo be ever human rated. So it will not be the replacement. Its very likely Starliner will simply be killed after 6 missions.
martyvis 3y ago
It's not just Starliner that is going to have it's maiden crewed flight but also the Atlas V rocket that will take it to orbit has never been used on a manned flight (though early variants of Atlas were used in the Mercury program in the 1960s).
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23 points by peutetre 3y ago

Hopefully the door to the ship doesn’t fly open during the mission … If there were decent competition or many firms in the space I wonder if Boeing’s failures in quality making planes would affect its ability to get government contracts

pixiemaster 3y ago
well in this case the alternative are probably Space Karens FullSelfPiloting RoboRocket
- LorenDB 3y ago
  Please note that SpaceX has successfully launched 12 crewed flights, and their "full self pilot roborocket" has landed itself 300 times so far, with the oldest boosters having flown 20 times each (and SpaceX plans to stretch that to 40 flights each). If you don't like Elon Musk, you can say so, but that's no reason to be dismissive of SpaceX's overwhelming success as a spaceflight company.
  - collingreen 3y ago
    If the poster doesn't like Elon Musk (clearly doesn't, from the extreme snark) then Elon's relationship with SpaceX seems like a very valid reason to consider them together, whether you think the company is doing well or not. It's kind of silly to tell someone the CEO has no impact on a company and that the CEOs previous antics are no reason to dismiss the company's current output.
_joel 3y ago
It's ok, they checked it whilst replacing all of the flammable tape they used to wrap the avionics :/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/crewed-starliner-launch-delayed-by-flammable-tape-botched-parachutes/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/crewed-starliner-...
tjpnz 3y ago
Nothing would surprise me at this point. Every time they address a problem they find a bunch of new ones. God knows how many more they're introducing in the process. I wouldn't want to fly on that thing unless the Boeing CEOs (current and previous) were also present.
- jprete 3y ago
  Might not be enough. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_submersible_implosion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_submersible_implosion
allanmacgregor 3y ago
I came here for this comment, thank you!

deleted 3y ago

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_joel 3y ago

I would not like to be in that capsule, that's for sure.

api 3y ago
I’d be less worried about the Boeing factor here. NASA peer reviews all designs and checks the final system for anything manned or high value. It’s possible that Boeing being incompetent and NASA being tied up with them is a cause for delays. Not sure but it seems plausible. I wonder why they wouldn’t use Falcon Heavy though. Starship is still in development and not ready for any of this but FH is flight proven and cheaper.
- boricj 3y ago
  > NASA peer reviews all designs and checks the final system for anything manned or high value. That didn't prevent the first orbital flight test of the Starliner capsule from being a complete mess that almost resulted in the loss of the vehicle. > I wonder why they wouldn’t use Falcon Heavy though. I don't think Falcon Heavy is human-rated.
- icegreentea2 3y ago
  They aren't using Falcon Heavy because FH isn't human rated. In any case, Starliner could get by on a Falcon 9 (in terms of required performance), but it would be a big chunk of $$$. The Starliner is a pretty wide capsule, which is why they need that skirt on the Atlas V. The skirt controls the aerodynamic transition from the fatter Starliner to the skinnier Atlas underneath. The F9 is a different diameter from the Atlas, but still narrower than the Starliner, so they'd probably need a different skirt design. The obvious other replacement vehicle is Vulcan, which is actually fatter than the Starliner. I have no idea what integration issues that'd entail. As for why Boeing went for Atlas? Well... SpaceX is their literal competitor. Assured access also implies being willing to take a hit on cost efficiency to ensure diversity of both crew capsule as well as launch vehicle.
  - panick21_ 3y ago
    Vulcan is unlikely yo be ever human rated. So it will not be the replacement. Its very likely Starliner will simply be killed after 6 missions.

martyvis 3y ago

It's not just Starliner that is going to have it's maiden crewed flight but also the Atlas V rocket that will take it to orbit has never been used on a manned flight (though early variants of Atlas were used in the Mercury program in the 1960s).

deleted 3y ago

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