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First, I don't understand why the two astronauts are going to be stranded for months. After the Columbia disaster, NASA adopted a policy where another Shuttle c

by jmyeet 2y ago

First, I don't understand why the two astronauts are going to be stranded for months. After the Columbia disaster, NASA adopted a policy where another Shuttle could be scrambled if a rescue mission as required. Shuttles took a lot of processing between missions. Replacing tiles, inspecting engines, that sort of thing. The report after Columbia showed that it might have been possible to scramble another Shuttle but the timeline was super tight. NASA decided not to repeat that mistake. So here we are where an 8 day mission turns into a 6 month mission because NASA (via SpaceX )doesn't have a backup? How did that happen? It's also worth noting that Crew Dragon can be configured for 6 passengers. NASA uses a 4 passenger configuration because there's simply no need for a 6 person configuration... except for now. It may actually end up being cheaper for Boeing to simply return the money (or negotiate a partial return) and throw up the white flag. Boeing is in such a terrible state. It's simply coasting on earlier successes and airlines being locked in to the 737 type rating.

asadotzler 2y ago
Because they're not "stranded" they're just doing a slightly extended otherwise normal mission rather than a brief test mission. There's no problem with that. There is no emergency here. There's no need to scramble anything so they will ride home on February having spent 8 months up sharing a Dragon ride down with a crew that spent 6 months up. No big deal. The ISS crew appreciates the extra help around the shop right now. Butch and Suni want to be in space -- that's why they're astronauts, so they're not suffering. The only people suffering are their families and Boeing stockholders. Dragon cannot be configured with 6 seats. The 7 seat configuration was rejected by NASA because of g-forces and the vehicles are now solidly 4 seaters and you certainly can't add two more seats to the Crew Dragon that's already up there so you wait on the next one to arrive on its regular schedule minus two of its crew so Suni and Butch can use those seats. Also, they need to send up Dragon suits as the Starliner suits can't be plugged into Dragon so even if they sat on the floor of the already up there Dragon for the ride home, they still couldn't jack in and that's only going to happen if there's a genuine emergency -- which there is not. You make a lot of seemingly confident, but wrong assertions here. I suggest moderating that certainty until you know more about the subject.

by jmyeet 2y ago

asadotzler 2y ago

Because they're not "stranded" they're just doing a slightly extended otherwise normal mission rather than a brief test mission. There's no problem with that. There is no emergency here. There's no need to scramble anything so they will ride home on February having spent 8 months up sharing a Dragon ride down with a crew that spent 6 months up. No big deal. The ISS crew appreciates the extra help around the shop right now. Butch and Suni want to be in space -- that's why they're astronauts, so they're not suffering. The only people suffering are their families and Boeing stockholders. Dragon cannot be configured with 6 seats. The 7 seat configuration was rejected by NASA because of g-forces and the vehicles are now solidly 4 seaters and you certainly can't add two more seats to the Crew Dragon that's already up there so you wait on the next one to arrive on its regular schedule minus two of its crew so Suni and Butch can use those seats. Also, they need to send up Dragon suits as the Starliner suits can't be plugged into Dragon so even if they sat on the floor of the already up there Dragon for the ride home, they still couldn't jack in and that's only going to happen if there's a genuine emergency -- which there is not. You make a lot of seemingly confident, but wrong assertions here. I suggest moderating that certainty until you know more about the subject.