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ISS Space NASA

Astronauts Who Flew To Space Aboard Starliner Face Additional Delay (cnn.com) 32

Posted by BeauHD from the here-we-go-again dept.
NASA has delayed the launch of SpaceX Crew-10 to late March 2025 to allow time for processing a new Dragon spacecraft, extending the stay of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the ISS to about nine months. CNN reports: Williams and Wilmore launched to space in June, piloting the first crewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. Their trip, expected to last about a week, ballooned into a monthslong assignment after their vehicle experienced technical issues en route to the space station and NASA determined it would be too risky to bring them home aboard the Starliner.

The astronauts have since joined Crew-9, a routine space station mission originally slated to return to Earth no earlier than February after a handoff period with Crew-10. Now, Crew-10 will get off the ground at least a month later than expected because NASA and SpaceX teams need "time to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission," according to the space agency. "NASA and SpaceX assessed various options for managing the next crewed handover, including using another Dragon spacecraft," NASA noted in a blog post on Tuesday. "After careful consideration, the team determined that launching Crew-10 in late March, following completion of the new Dragon spacecraft, was the best option for meeting NASA's requirements and achieving space station objectives for 2025."

Astronauts Who Flew To Space Aboard Starliner Face Additional Delay More | Reply

Astronauts Who Flew To Space Aboard Starliner Face Additional Delay

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  • Whomp Whomp (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Bahbus ( 1180627 ) on Thursday December 19, 2024 @02:08AM (#65024379) Homepage

    Boeing is just a sad pile of failures now. The worst part is that the people at Boeing who should feel bad about their failures don't, while the ones who shouldn't do.

    • Of course, this new delay is because of SpaceX - not Boeing.

      • Re:Whomp Whomp (Score:4, Insightful)

        by stooo ( 2202012 ) on Thursday December 19, 2024 @03:04AM (#65024425) Homepage

        If Boeing did not mess up, those people would be home

        • I really found it disheartening that SpaceX accepted bringing home those astronauts and not forcing NASA and Boeing to fix their own fuckups. For one, there are two astronauts who were let down when they were told their seats were now given to other people. SpaceX also charges for those seats. Is Boeing going to compensate SpaceX for flying a part of the round trip empty? It is millions of dollars, so it will impact the bottom line, and SpaceX need all the help they can get financially speaking to further t

          • Both Sunni and Butch have flown on the Shuttle and Soyuz before. They are extremely experienced astronauts, which is why they were selected to test the Starliner in the first place. They will be fine. Dragon is very well-tested at this point, having any issues on the way down is extremely unlikely.

            And Starliner is not blocking any docking port - the capsule returned to Earth, flying autonomously, back in September.

            • Really? Would they have survived if they were in it or did it fail in a way that risked their life?

          • 1) SpaceX does not decide or have say on who flies on the missions - that is NASA's call. They have a contract with NASA to fly missions and NASA pick which butts will be in the seats. NASA pays the same if they put one, two, three or four astronauts on board (plus some cargo items). It's just a max payload weight thing. SpaceX does not care what NASA chose to do. Heck - they are getting extra business probably overall - if Starship can't fly, Dragon gets the call.

            2) They now have proper suits for Drago

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jythie ( 914043 )
          Sad thing is, it wasn't even Boeing that messed up. It was a component built by someone else.
          • Boeing is the general contractor and should have taken responsibility and had testing and quality assurance mechanisms in place to ensure success.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Bahbus ( 1180627 )

            Did Boeing do final assembly and inspections before handing it off to NASA? Which name did they put on it...right, Boeing's. I don't care if the blame comes back to an O-ring from Home Depot that Engineer Steve installed. It's Boeing's fault. The whole company gets glory for the (relatively) few people's successes; the whole company gets shit on for the few people's mistakes.

            If it weren't an extreme hazard (and the fact they don't have the means or materials), I'd say dislodge the ship by any means necessar

      • Re:Whomp Whomp (Score:4, Informative)

        by Megane ( 129182 ) on Thursday December 19, 2024 @03:41AM (#65024457)
        The delay is because SpaceX needs to build a new capsule. A new capsule would not be necessary if Starliner was doing the missions that it was supposed to be doing. But SpaceX is doing twice the missions, because someone has to fly them up if Boing isn't. So yes, this is still Boing's fault.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Bahbus ( 1180627 )

        A cascading ripple set in motion because of Boeing. I hate Elon, but SpaceX has better engineers and, also, a better track record in general.

  • Big Deal (Score:3)

    by cstacy ( 534252 ) on Thursday December 19, 2024 @08:53AM (#65024901)

    Oh blah blah the poor astronauts STRANDED and will have not trained on SpaceX...however will they cope?!?

    And gosh, it will be another month now!

    I am pretty sure they can handle sitting in a different kind of seat and dealing with plugging in different hoses. Give me a break.

    The risk they signed up for initially included a chance of DEATH. They LIVED, despite Boeing, and now they got to live on the goddamned SPACE STATION for months and months. How many would give their eye teeth to hang out on the ISS? I think these astronauts TOTALLY SCORED in getting an extended stay.

    Everything back on Earth is being well taken care of for them, and they're getting a massive pay bonus, and they get to log a whole tour in space, doing interesting shit that they are assigned. They get to fly on both Boeing and SpaceX. It's a fucking DREAM for these astronauts, not some horrible nightmare.

    The only bad thing here is how screwed up Boeing is. On the bright side, this whole thing exposes the NASA/Boeing problems and gives everyone (including Congress) a much needed reality check and wake-up call.

    What part of SPACE STATION do you not get?

  • I'm due to make a pitch for a new television show tomorrow. Our tentative title is "Stuck in Space!" It's about a mismatched, salt and pepper, Duo trying to find their way home. We're hoping to cast Will Smith and Dolly Parton in the lead roles.

  • It's a Boeing.

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