The question facing NASA's leadership today? Should the two astronauts return to Earth from the International Space Station in Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, with its history of thruster failures and helium leaks, or should they come home on a SpaceX Dragon capsule?
this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2024
1 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
58513 readers
5160 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
The lives of two government employees are in the balance, and taxpayers paid Boeing for most of the Starliner spacecraft's development costs.
Money money money...
The question facing NASA’s leadership today? Should the two astronauts return to Earth...
"Alright, just hear me out..." -Boeing
This is an excellent article. I’m glad they took time to go into the history of these folks.
Step 1. Fire Boeing.
Step 2. Fucking FUND NASA.
Step 3. NASA builds space stuff that works.
I’ve worked for several aerospace companies including Boeing. I have nothing but contempt and hatred for Boeing and couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Management is garbage, safety comes second to schedule, people are treated like disposable cogs, but I would trust Boeing over NASA. I work with a lot of NASA and ex-NASA people right now on a couple major projects. Dear god NASA upper management makes me want to put my head through a wall! The insufferable sense of superiority trying to tell us “how things are done”. Bro, how is SLS coming? That’s what I thought, shut your mouth and stop pretending like you are the Apple of space systems. Luckily, most of the ground level people at NASA are more down to earth (pardon the puns) and easier to work with.
To be fair, some work has always been outsourced.
Like the o rings…
Dark 😮
I like my humor like I like my NASA space vehicles - outsourced to the lowest bidder.
Boeing was the most expensive bidder for this program.
load more comments
(1 replies)
NASA contracting stuff to space X has probably be the most amazing and sound financial decision they have made.
People on this website are so biased because Elon runs it but he genuinely built one of the most amazing companies in the world. Government including the US are miles behind them and struggling to play catch up and they are only trying because Space X has become so much better than them they have to.
It's arguably not even him that it really running it
Don't care. He built the company, he's the face of it. People hate the company and live in a dreamland where it's failing because they want what Elon owns to be shit.
It isn't and they are wrong because they can't see past their bias.
From what I see Gwynne Shotwell is the one that's really doing the heavy lifting in the company.
Seriously what is going on here?
Okay? If that is or isn't correct what did I say that was wrong?
Are you saying. People think Spacex is a failing company (when it isn't) because of Shotwell?
I haven't said anything about it being a failing company, I'm just introducing some much needed information because of how much glazing I've noticed.
They're just adding context. Calm down you have a real victim complex going on, and it's boring.
It's not a complex, he's reacting to the downvotes (that do seem unfair).
He's being downvoted because people are pointing things out and he's arguing about them, even though they are reality.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
Yes, Musk has made people hate anything he's involved in, or that enriches him. It's only natural; Actions have consequences. He's a severely mentally ill billionaire, increasingly detached from reality. And now his politics and disinformation are a danger to millions of people. If SpaceX or Tesla wants to feel the love, they know what to do. Until then, I can only assume they accept the consequences.
I'm not sure how peoples delusions are a logical outcome.
If I don't like America that doesn't mean it suddenly isn't the richest country in the world just because I don't like it.
People really need to understand their bias, wanting SpaceX to be shit doesn't make it so. That's what we are talking about. Nothing else. SpaceX rockets aren't powered on feels.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Lol you were downvoted, fuck these people. They're children.
Space x doesn't work thanks to Musk. It works DESPITE him, and it requires careful management.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Seems like he's more involved with starship now than falcon or dragon.
load more comments
(4 replies)
No it was the engineers not Elon who built Space X up.
It’s not just blind hate for Elon, they’re genuinely terrible stewards of the environment in south Texas. They constantly lie about their intentions and impact to avoid having to take responsibility for anything. Say what you will about how independently they operate from his input, this is definitely a company culture that he cultivates and promotes.
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1823378186836889699
CNBC updated its story yesterday with additional factually inaccurate information.
While there may be a typo in one table of the initial TCEQ's public version of the permit application, the rest of the application and the lab reports clearly states that levels of Mercury found in non-stormwater discharge associated with the water deluge system are well below state and federal water quality criteria (of no higher than 2.1 micrograms per liter for acute aquatic toxicity), and are, in most instances, non-detectable.
The initial application was updated within 30 days to correct the typo and TCEQ is updating the application to reflect the correction.
load more comments
(4 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
Well... except for those times it didn't.
Id argue that nasa is responsible for more deaths than the privately owned companies attempting the same thing.
Step 4. NASA builds planes that work (on the side).
If BASA build aircraft they would have to throw it all away at the end of the flight.
Need better funding but they absolutely shouldn't be building spacecraft, they are too scared of getting yelled at to innovate, and innovation is required.
load more comments
(2 replies)
s/Fire/Nationalize/
load more comments
(4 replies)
In this particular situation, if Boeing says it's safe, I would be inclined to trust them, because if they make the return happen, and it fails, Boeing is done fore. As a crew member though, I would pass for sure and wait for a Dragon
They could feel like there's nothing more to lose if it doesn't make it back but they might be able to claw their way back if it succeeds. "They" being the individuals making the recommendation, not the individuals more concerned about the company overall. If Boeing decides the spaceflight industry isn't worth the risks, a downsize or complete closing of that part of the company could cost the jobs of those who are the experts in this situation.
So it might not be a case of "we think it's safe to return". It might be "returning safely is the only scenario where we aren't fucked, so let's roll the dice".
load more comments
(1 replies)
How many people died because boeing made shitty planes and didn’t train their crew properly?
Is boeing done for?
They get one last chance! If they kill these astronauts this time, we'll be really, really mad like for real!
Don't worry, we have enough tax payer's money to bail them out if anything goes wrong.
/s
I think messing up on NASA projects will hurt a company way more. Of course aviation is supposed to be safe, but even the 737 Max has flown thousands of hours. Comparing how many people that have flown on them, versus how many that have been hurt/killed, is still a small number, which is still is supposed to be zero of course.
Traversing space, a pinnacle of engineering, is quite another level of danger, and if you insist on your product being functional and safe, and then kills two astronauts, would cause a whole different level of backlash
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
The crew should come back on the Dragon and Boeing be required to solve the problems and carry out another test flight. It is unacceptable that Boeing wants to bring the astronauts back without understanding some of the failures on the Starliner.
I’m sure they understand the problems, and they understand that solving them would eat into their profits
Another test flight will be a bit of a problem. There are no spare Atlas V rockets. They will either have to convince Amazon to give up one of theirs or they will have to launch one of the missions on Vulcan Centaur, which is not currently crew rated.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Three Starliner mission managers had key roles on Columbia's ill-fated final flight.
I was gonna take issue with that statement until i read this. Causality does seem more probable.
Shitty Boeing aside, how are they eating up there? I don't know anything about space station food logistics, but if a planned week has turned into ten weeks, surely there must be a resource strain.
they must have a significant food bank supply, including some kind of reserve replacement nutrients in the event shit goes wrong. That or an incredibly redundant delivery network.
Don't they have their own version of MREs they use for situations like this?
load more comments
(5 replies)
I was curious about this same thing.
Can’t wait to see this project too in Google’s graveyard.
They eat whichever astronaut dies first.
Just don't question the cause of death, because it will be blunt force trauma
load more comments
(3 replies)
view more: next ›