Boeing problems...

[sdifox]

I bet there's at least ONE human being on Earth who, when exposed to space radiation and zero gravity, will develop superhuman powers.

We've been doing it all wrong all these years. Instead of going to Mars, we should be creating this huge Death Star like space station without the death ray so at least 10,000 people can be in space at any one time and then we test everyone who volunteers to stay in that station for a few weeks to see if they get stronger instead of weaker. And no, there would be no artificial gravity on the station coz that would then defeat the whole purpose.

You should experiment by sticking your wiener in the microwave.

 

[igor_kavinski]

You should experiment by sticking your wiener in the microwave.

Poor simulation of radiation exposure on a space station. Even at the lowest setting.

 

[Paratus]

Space program itself is a hugely unethical experiment where the astronauts have to accept the risk that they may not come back, no?

And what's the risk in building a huge mini-moon type of space station? It will come in handy for other purposes (like robotic industries in space).

No

 

[igor_kavinski]

No

So the astronauts don't sign a waiver or something?

 

[Indus]

No

Just look back at Apollo 1 incident. What he said is more or less true.. the risks are real.

 

[hal2kilo]

Just look back at Apollo 1 incident. What he said is more or less true.. the risks are real.

NASA still tries to play the space travel is routine thing, well at least in the shuttle days except for, oh 2 flights that went incredibly bad because they ignored there own protocols or thought they had it covered with second incident.

 

[Paratus]

So the astronauts don't sign a waiver or something?

It is absolutely not “unethical”. Being unethical would be failing to inform the crew of the risks they are accepting and not giving them a say in accepting those risks.

Our crews are involved with their missions for years. They thoroughly understand the risks. There are multiple opportunities to address risks that they or others might find unacceptable. Including going outside the standard process and taking the concern to a center director and then to HQ.

All assessed risks are presented at the Flight Readiness Review where the crew/crew representative gives their approval or the mission is delayed.

None of this means they aren’t exposed to catastrophic risks. We have dozens of catastrophic risks for each mission. What it does mean is we have sufficient controls in place to drive the likelihood of those risks happening low enough that they are acceptable.

Just look back at Apollo 1 incident. What he said is more or less true.. the risks are real.

Apollo 1? The accident where during a plugs out test the command module was pressurized to 16+ psi of pure O2, a fire started which doubled the internal pressure and due to the inward opening hatch they couldn’t get out leading to their death from smoke inhalation in a less than 15 seconds before the entire pressure vessel burst? That Apollo 1 incident? Yes I’ve looked at it.

 

[brycejones]

Just look back at Apollo 1 incident. What he said is more or less true.. the risks are real.

The risks are real. It would be unethical if astronauts were not aware of the risks. Now are you and @igor_kavinski going to argue that astronauts are not aware of the risks?

Calling the space program an unethical experiment because there are risks is utter and complete bullshit.

 

[Paratus]

Starliner is safely off ISS. Deorbit and landing in 5-6 hours.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Deorbit and landing in 5-6 hours.

Oh no. I can hear Boeing's heart thumping.

Will it land? WILL IT LAND???

 

[hal2kilo]

Starliner is safely off ISS. Deorbit and landing in 5-6 hours.

Thank MSNBC not. Missed the debarkation.

 

[Paratus]

Thank MSNBC not. Missed the debarkation.

NASA TV will have live coverage I believe of the de-orbit. The undock was thankfully uneventful.

 

[Paratus]

Starliner deorbit starting now.

 

[Paratus]

Touchdown!

 

[Indus]

I was worried those final 3 shoots wouldn't open.. they were halfway open for a long time there.

 

[Paratus]

I was worried those final 3 shoots wouldn't open.. they were halfway open for a long time there.

They are designed to reef like that.

 

[hal2kilo]

NASA TV will have live coverage I believe of the de-orbit. The undock was thankfully uneventful.

Watched the whole reentry on NASA semi live (it was delayed by almost a minute compared to CNN feed). It dawned on me, WTF at night? All went as planned though (should have said nominal).

 

[Paratus]

Watched the whole reentry on NASA semi live (it was delayed by almost a minute compared to CNN feed). It dawned on me, WTF at night? All went as planned though (should have said nominal).

Had to pick the undock day after completing the work required to get Starliner ready to come home and fit it within the other traffic coming to the ISS.

There’s a lot of constraints on timing for the undock, deorbit, and landing. Nominal mission puts them about 6 hours apart. We also need good weather and reasonable wind speeds at the landing site. So undock was late afternoon CST and just before crew sleep on the ISS. That put landing in the dark at White Sands & winds were really low.

Besides the WB57 has thermal vision cameras so we got a pretty good look at command module descent.

 

[Zorba]

Watched the whole reentry on NASA semi live (it was delayed by almost a minute compared to CNN feed). It dawned on me, WTF at night? All went as planned though (should have said nominal).

You bury bad news doing it late on Friday. I think there was a reason they were doing it at Midnight on a Friday .

 

[Paratus]

So it wasn’t entirely nominal. Since ARS is already mentioning it I’ll point it out here too.

Leaving behind its crew, Starliner departs space station and returns to Earth

"We will review the data and determine the next steps for the program," says Boeing's Starliner manager.

arstechnica.com

“A couple of fresh technical problems cropped up as Starliner cruised back to Earth. One of 12 control jets on the crew module failed to ignite at any time during Starliner's flight home. These are separate thrusters from the small engines that caused trouble earlier in the Starliner mission. There was also a brief glitch in Starliner's navigation system during reentry.”

So the command module had a bad thruster (independent of the thruster issues on the Service Module) and their was some GPS lockup issues - although there was enough redundancy it wasn’t an issue for landing.

 

[hal2kilo]

Had to pick the undock day after completing the work required to get Starliner ready to come home and fit it within the other traffic coming to the ISS.

There’s a lot of constraints on timing for the undock, deorbit, and landing. Nominal mission puts them about 6 hours apart. We also need good weather and reasonable wind speeds at the landing site. So undock was late afternoon CST and just before crew sleep on the ISS. That put landing in the dark at White Sands & winds were really low.

Besides the WB57 has thermal vision cameras so we got a pretty good look at command module descent.

Yea, it was all in black and white so I knew it was IR. Typical bigfoot viewing.

 

[hal2kilo]

Boeing union employees voting now whether to accept Boeings latest offering.

 

[Zorba]

Strike Strike Strike

Boeing factory workers strike for first time since 2008 after overwhelmingly rejecting contract

More than 30,000 Boeing workers were set to strike Friday, halting production of most of the company's aircraft after staff rejected a new labor contract.

www.cnbc.com

Also maybe quality would be better if your starting wage was higher than McDonald's.

 

[hal2kilo]

Strike Strike Strike

Boeing factory workers strike for first time since 2008 after overwhelmingly rejecting contract

More than 30,000 Boeing workers were set to strike Friday, halting production of most of the company's aircraft after staff rejected a new labor contract.

www.cnbc.com

Also maybe quality would be better if your starting wage was higher than McDonald's.

It was like 96% no!

 

[thilanliyan]

Ouch... (for Boeing)
Are the 40% wage hike and other things they want reasonable?