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Listen to the actual conference: https://www.youtube.com/live/DYPL6bx87yM?si=W5UzfyiYzPX3KgGr https://www.youtube.com/live/DYPL6bx87yM?si=W5UzfyiYzPX3KgGr IMHO

Listen to the actual conference: https://www.youtube.com/live/DYPL6bx87yM?si=W5UzfyiYzPX3KgGr https://www.youtube.com/live/DYPL6bx87yM?si=W5UzfyiYzPX3KgGr IMHO summarising it like the title is a little unfair; yes they're making provision for use of Dragon; but they haven't made any decision yet. The thing that seems to have confused them is that all the Starliner thrusters are working in their tests - given their idea of some teflon deformation somewhere, I think they thought they'd still be problematic, which is making them wonder if the teflon thing is the full story?

philipwhiuk 2y ago
It's not unfair given the information provided in this conference that was new. The dialog on conferences has shifted such that the main piece of news is that they may fly home on the Dragon.
HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
It seems it'd be a massive reputational risk to NASA to bring them back on Starliner, just in case anything does go wrong. Given all the deliberations, NASA is going to be seen as at least 50% to blame if they make the wrong decision.
- mannykannot 2y ago
  Everyone closely involved with making the decision will be well aware that the subsequent inquiry, and quite a bit of the public's reaction, will be personally brutal if they opt for Starliner and it fails catastrophically, no matter how small the odds seemed at the time.
  - WalterBright 2y ago
    Being unable to deal with risk means the end of the space program.
    - colordrops 2y ago
      There's risk and then there's unnecessary risk.
      - WalterBright 2y ago
        The difference between the two is always a matter of someone's opinion.
      - BSDobelix 2y ago
        You could argue that landing on the Moon and even Mars is an unnecessary risk, or human spaceflight as a whole. The whole moon programme and the space shuttle were extremely high risk by today's standards, but the moon programme was to prove that the US could beat the USSR, and the space shuttle was to transport spy satellites and build the ISS. But Starliner should really be nearly zero risk with that small goal of docking and drop back home.
        oefrha 2y ago
        Comparing brand new challenges to something that’s been done routinely a hundred times already is rather pointless.
        BSDobelix 2y ago
        Docking to the ISS and drop home was done ~hundred times already, we compare Starliner with Soyuz in that mission no?
    - highwaylights 2y ago
      Losing public support means the end of the space program too. Especially in an election year.
      - Yeul 2y ago
        How many astronauts died in the Apollo era? Nobody wants a Chinese moon base. That's worth a few lives.
  - hinkley 2y ago
    They have plenty of experience with how Congress treats them when they kill astronauts.
mannykannot 2y ago
The title strikes me as an entirely fair characterization of your own summary of the situation.
ramraj07 2y ago
Yeah this announcement sounds like the type of thing bad bosses do to look like their decisions till now were sound (they were not). Accepting star liner as a mistake will ask the question what NASA did anyway.
Laremere 2y ago
Interesting tidbit: Talking about the upcoming Crew Dragon flight being moved around: "We will let SpaceX use our first stage booster, they'll go fly a starlink flight, ahead of our flight to get a little shakedown of that booster. It had some moisture intrusion and we want to go ahead and get that booster flown. And so there's a win win there - flying our booster on a starlink flight before our crew flight." The complete 180 here is great to see. For the crewed demo flight of Crew Dragon, they used a brand new booster. It seems NASA didn't like the idea of flying on reused boosters, thinking they had an increased risk. Now they're liking the idea of a booster being flown an extra time.
- chinathrow 2y ago
  > Now they're liking the idea of a booster being flown an extra time. "Flight proven"
  - selimthegrim 2y ago
    "Flight secured."
- MPSimmons 2y ago
  I worked at SpaceX for almost 8 years, starting before we'd ever landed a Falcon, and I cannot tell you how good it feels, deeply in my soul, to have watched this turnaround. The culture we were fighting against early on was so entrenched. This is great.
  - indoordin0saur 2y ago
    Congrats to you guys. SpaceX has done incredible things.

philipwhiuk 2y ago

It's not unfair given the information provided in this conference that was new. The dialog on conferences has shifted such that the main piece of news is that they may fly home on the Dragon.

HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago

It seems it'd be a massive reputational risk to NASA to bring them back on Starliner, just in case anything does go wrong. Given all the deliberations, NASA is going to be seen as at least 50% to blame if they make the wrong decision.

mannykannot 2y ago
Everyone closely involved with making the decision will be well aware that the subsequent inquiry, and quite a bit of the public's reaction, will be personally brutal if they opt for Starliner and it fails catastrophically, no matter how small the odds seemed at the time.
- WalterBright 2y ago
  Being unable to deal with risk means the end of the space program.
  - colordrops 2y ago
    There's risk and then there's unnecessary risk.
    - WalterBright 2y ago
      The difference between the two is always a matter of someone's opinion.
    - BSDobelix 2y ago
      You could argue that landing on the Moon and even Mars is an unnecessary risk, or human spaceflight as a whole. The whole moon programme and the space shuttle were extremely high risk by today's standards, but the moon programme was to prove that the US could beat the USSR, and the space shuttle was to transport spy satellites and build the ISS. But Starliner should really be nearly zero risk with that small goal of docking and drop back home.
      - oefrha 2y ago
        Comparing brand new challenges to something that’s been done routinely a hundred times already is rather pointless.
        BSDobelix 2y ago
        Docking to the ISS and drop home was done ~hundred times already, we compare Starliner with Soyuz in that mission no?
  - highwaylights 2y ago
    Losing public support means the end of the space program too. Especially in an election year.
    - Yeul 2y ago
      How many astronauts died in the Apollo era? Nobody wants a Chinese moon base. That's worth a few lives.
- hinkley 2y ago
  They have plenty of experience with how Congress treats them when they kill astronauts.

mannykannot 2y ago

The title strikes me as an entirely fair characterization of your own summary of the situation.

ramraj07 2y ago

Yeah this announcement sounds like the type of thing bad bosses do to look like their decisions till now were sound (they were not). Accepting star liner as a mistake will ask the question what NASA did anyway.

Laremere 2y ago

Interesting tidbit: Talking about the upcoming Crew Dragon flight being moved around: "We will let SpaceX use our first stage booster, they'll go fly a starlink flight, ahead of our flight to get a little shakedown of that booster. It had some moisture intrusion and we want to go ahead and get that booster flown. And so there's a win win there - flying our booster on a starlink flight before our crew flight." The complete 180 here is great to see. For the crewed demo flight of Crew Dragon, they used a brand new booster. It seems NASA didn't like the idea of flying on reused boosters, thinking they had an increased risk. Now they're liking the idea of a booster being flown an extra time.

chinathrow 2y ago
> Now they're liking the idea of a booster being flown an extra time. "Flight proven"
- selimthegrim 2y ago
  "Flight secured."
MPSimmons 2y ago
I worked at SpaceX for almost 8 years, starting before we'd ever landed a Falcon, and I cannot tell you how good it feels, deeply in my soul, to have watched this turnaround. The culture we were fighting against early on was so entrenched. This is great.
- indoordin0saur 2y ago
  Congrats to you guys. SpaceX has done incredible things.