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NASA Considers Sending Boeing Starliner Astronauts Home on SpaceX Dragon

https://www.space.com/boeing-starliner- ... edule-flux

Boeing Starliner may not bring its first astronauts home after all.

NASA officials, absent a representative from Boeing, updated reporters today (Aug. 7) about how troubleshooting Starliner's undocking and landing may affect the next SpaceX astronaut flight to the International Space Station.

Starliner has faced a lot of difficulties since launching its first astronaut mission, most especially after 5 of its 28 reaction control thrusters (RCS) misfired during docking with the ISS on June 6. Work on the matter is ongoing, and as NASA revealed yesterday (Aug. 6), it will require the next launch to the ISS to wait. Crew-9, SpaceX's ninth operational flight to the ISS designed for four astronauts, will now launch Sept. 24 instead of Aug. 18. That's because NASA may send only two astronauts up on Crew-9, and bring the Starliner astronauts with the two returning crew sometime around February 2025.

. . .

The duo was supposed to stay in space for roughly 10 days, but it now has been north of 60 and counting. NASA continues to emphasize the astronauts can leave the ISS if an emergency arises, but agency officials sound less certain now that the astronauts will come home on Starliner, as the mission plan called for.

"We don't just have to bring a crew back on Starliner, for example. We could bring them back on another vehicle."

That vehicle may very well be SpaceX.

. . .

Regardless of who is on board, per a task order issued by NASA, SpaceX Crew-9 could launch with two astronauts and two seats filled with mass simulators to account for the empty seats. Crew-9 would stay docked to ISS for a normal six-month mission, with Williams and Wilmore returning early next year in the two leftover seats.

It's notable that Boeing's Commercial Crew head was MIA from today's briefing.

Yes, Clusterfuck and FUBAR are in play and competing for top billing.

Now the Boeing failures are affecting the space station operations schedules. They need to just jettison the fucking vehicle and let it burn up over Seattle or India.

Save us the drama, we all ready know Boeing is in way over their head and will never catch up.

Shit would change if I was in charge.

Can you imagine if (G0D forbid) the two astronauts leave the ISS on the Boeing Starliner, and don't make it back safely?


Also, it is amazing to see how much NASA, Boeing, the US, and all the other countries involved with the ISS, are all doing in coordination, just to keep up the facade of a globe shaped earth. Why are they so scared of the TRUTH??????????

Damn. The Starliner is such a huge piece of shit it will probably be the name of the next horse that Spoux will own 1/5,067th of or,perhaps, his BiL's next boat.

mvscal wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2024 8:11 pm Damn. The Starliner is such a huge piece of shit it will probably be the name of the next horse that Spoux will own 1/5,067th of or,perhaps, his BiL's next boat.

Racket

Bad news keeps slowly trickling out. Almost like they are hiding the seriousness of this shit.

https://futurism.com/stranded-astronaut ... compatible

Time to walk away from Star liner and let Boeing concentrate on airplanes.

I wonder if that lady astronaut is tired of picking her nose. Or maybe she's giving some great rimmers up there to the crew.

Meat Head wrote: ↑Thu Aug 22, 2024 11:23 pm Bad news keeps slowly trickling out. Almost like they are hiding the seriousness of this shit.

https://futurism.com/stranded-astronaut ... compatible

Time to walk away from Star liner and let Boeing concentrate on airplanes.

I wonder if that lady astronaut is tired of picking her nose. Or maybe she's giving some great rimmers up there to the crew.

There's a Problem With Rescuing the Stranded Astronauts: SpaceX and Boeing Spacesuits Aren't Compatible

I guess I don't understand the insurmountable difficulty of flying a couple of space suits to the Boeing astronauts, have them zip those suckers on, and fly them back to the ground. Are these suits biometric or something?

NASA is sending them back in a SpaceX spacecraft.

Are they going to call AAA to pick up the Starliner?

Diego in Seattle wrote: ↑Sat Aug 24, 2024 5:44 pm Are they going to call AAA to pick up the Starliner?

That big-nosed, homeless woman you sent up there will pawn it to teenagers for beer. The Starliner will then reappear in western New York and collide with the stage at a Red Hot Chili Peppers reunion show.

Dr_Phibes wrote: ↑Mon Aug 26, 2024 6:21 am That big-nosed, homeless woman you sent up there

Rack Phibes.

My GF would be peddling that sucker back to Earth herself if she had packed her luggage for a week and found out it had to last 6 months.....

The Seer wrote: ↑Mon Aug 26, 2024 1:40 pm My GF would be peddling that sucker back to Earth herself if she had packed her luggage for a week and found out it had to last 6 months.....

I believe this 100%. She'd calculate the reentry trajectory on the back of an old deposit slip and get out of there by sheer force of will.

Roux wrote:Also, it is amazing to see how much NASA, Boeing, the US, and all the other countries involved with the ISS, are all doing in coordination, just to keep up the facade of a globe shaped earth. Why are they so scared of the TRUTH??????????

Look at the screen on the left in this video.
18:30 to 19:15.

Why are moths flying around up in space?

Softball Bat wrote: ↑Thu Aug 29, 2024 3:22 am

Roux wrote:Also, it is amazing to see how much NASA, Boeing, the US, and all the other countries involved with the ISS, are all doing in coordination, just to keep up the facade of a globe shaped earth. Why are they so scared of the TRUTH??????????

Look at the screen on the left in this video.
18:30 to 19:15.

Why are moths flying around up in space?

This is a good question. WTF?

Boeing should concentrate on building planes that don’t have catastrophic failures before getting into the space game.

Boeing Considers Selling its Space Business, Including Starliner

Space.com wrote:Boeing may sell off its space business, including its Starliner program, amid large financial losses for the company, a media report suggests.

The discussions are said to be "at an early stage," according to an exclusive in the Wall Street Journal. The reported talks come less than two months after Starliner completed its first astronaut test flight on Sept. 6 by touching down in New Mexico autonomously, without its two crewmembers.

Boeing is known for decades of work with NASA, including being the prime contractor for the International Space Station. (The company continues engineering support services for ISS to this day.) But Boeing is facing mounting financial issues this year, including a protracted strike by its largest labor union and significant deficits in the Starliner program.
. . .
And it's uncertain how much of the business may be sold, if a sale happens at all. For example, Boeing may keep its role in leading the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for NASA's Artemis program of moon exploration, the WSJ report noted. The SLS successfully launched the Artemis 1 uncrewed mission to lunar orbit in 2022 and will launch astronauts around the moon as soon as 2025, with Artemis 2.

Boeing also has a 50% stake, along with Lockheed Martin, in United Launch Alliance, a national security focused-launch provider whose Atlas V rocket launched the Starliner mission on June 5. Lockheed and Boeing have reportedly been looking to sell ULA, as the joint venture moves into launches with a next-generation rocket known as Vulcan Centaur. Vulcan completed its second-ever launch on Oct. 2.
. . .

Solid post Strawman. Was wondering myself over the past couple of days what parts of Boeing's space business would be worth anything if it was split up. Starliner is probably not worth much. Same for SLS as it's decades old technology, unless some company finds value in its entirely pork barrel spending that keeps it afloat.

ULA would be worth something if Vulcan wasn't behind schedule. But it's not, so Boeing's stake in ULA can't be worth much. What about Boeing satellites? Probably a smaller sized but decently margined business.

You'll find Boeing in the bargain bin of any Zellers.

Canada should buy Boeing and rescue the astronauts, just to make you look bad. We'll have Dr. Homeless Menopause back safe and sound, she can get right back to swapping out the oil in Cape Canaveral garbage trucks and you'll have Canada to thank for it.

Can you smoke on the ISS, or is that against the rules?

I heard she was giving a rimmer with that big nose to a Ruskie astronaut and he kicked a leak in the russian module.

Meat Head wrote: ↑Wed Oct 30, 2024 11:21 pm I heard she was giving a rimmer with that big nose to a Ruskie astronaut and he kicked a leak in the russian module.

Just think what she could do with the CanadArm



We're currently working on the leg. When we get the whole body, she's up Uranus without a paddle.

Dr_Phibes wrote: ↑Thu Oct 31, 2024 5:25 am

Meat Head wrote: ↑Wed Oct 30, 2024 11:21 pm I heard she was giving a rimmer with that big nose to a Ruskie astronaut and he kicked a leak in the russian module.

Just think what she could do with the CanadArm



We're currently working on the leg. When we get the whole body, she's up Uranus without a paddle.

'Never-'stuck’ Starliner Astronauts Return to Earth at Last With Crew-9 Duo in SpaceX Dragon Splashdown

Starliner crewmates Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth with Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov on the Dragon "Freedom."

The first astronauts to fly on board two different commercial spacecraft during a single mission have returned to Earth, splashing down with two of their International Space Station crewmates.

Sunita "Suni" Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore did not set out to make history other than being the first crew to launch on Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule. After their capsule encountered propulsion issues, though, and NASA, out of an abundance of caution, decided to land it without them on board, Williams and Wilmore were reassigned to SpaceX's Crew Dragon to complete what ultimately extended from an 8-day to a nine-and-half-month mission.

Landing with WIlliams and Wilmore today (March 18) were fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov, a cosmonaut with Russia's federal corporation Roscosmos. Hague and Gorbunov launched on SpaceX's Crew Dragon "Freedom" without two of their planned Crew-9 crewmates in September, leaving two seats for Williams and Wilmore to use on the trip home.

"What a ride," said Hague just after splashing down. "I see a capsule full of grins from ear to ear."


SpaceX's Crew Dragon "Freedom" with the Crew-9 and Starliner astronauts on board splashes down under four parachutes off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida on March 18, 2025. (Image credit: NASA+)

The four Crew-9 members splashed down safely at 5:57 p.m. EDT (2157 GMT) off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. (They are the first crew to land in that body of water since President Donald Trump signed an executive order redesignating it as the Gulf of America.)

SpaceX ships quickly arrived to secure Freedom after its descent under three large parachutes. Once aboard the capsule recovery vessel, Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore and Williams were helped out of the Dragon and given brief medical checks before being transported by helicopter to the shore.


NASA astronaut Sunita Williams after exiting the Crew-9 Dragon capsule. (Image credit: NASA TV)

From there, the four will be flown by Gulfstream jet to Ellington Field in Houston. Per standard protocols, Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore and Williams will remain in crew quarters at NASA's Johnson Space Center for several days before they are approved by flight surgeons to return to their homes.

Crew-9's return to Earth began early this morning with the undocking of Freedom from the space-facing port on the space station's Harmony module at 1:05 a.m. EDT (0505 GMT). Their departure left the Expedition 72 crew to continue running the orbiting lab, including Aleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos and Don Pettit with NASA, who launched on Russia's Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft on Sep. 11, 2024; and the recently arrived members of SpaceX's Crew-10 mission: Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers of NASA, Takuya Onishi of JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Kirill Peskov of Roscomsos.

"We know the station is in great hands," said Hague as the distance between the Dragon and space station grew. "We're excited to see what you guys are going to accomplish."


SpaceX's Crew Dragon Freedom with Crew-9 on board is seen after undocking from the space-facing port on the International Space Station's Harmony module, on March, 18, 2025. (Image credit: NASA TV)

Fourteen hours later, Freedom jettisoned its rear-mounted trunk and fired its Draco thrusters for about 12 minutes to begin its deorbit and reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

Freedom's return was the second time that Hague, Gorbunov, Williams and Wilmore flew on the Dragon. In November, the four Crew-9 members briefly separated from the space station to relocate the capsule to the zenith docking port.

On Williams and Wimore's way to the ISS in June 2024, their Starliner vehicle, named "Calypso," developed helium leaks and issues with its thrusters overheating. After testing both before and after docking, Boeing's engineers believed Williams and Wilmore could safely land on Starliner but deferred to NASA's mission managers, who decided the risk was too great.

On Sept. 7, Calypso returned to Earth without its crew and landed safely at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.


From left to right: Butch Wilmore, Aleksandr Gorbunov, Nick Hague and Suni Williams are seen inside SpaceX's Crew Dragon Freedom after splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico and being hoisted onto a recovery ship on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (Image credit: NASA/Keegan Barber)

Williams and Wilmore instead joined the station's Expedition 72 crew, with Williams serving as commander. With their other crewmates, including Hague and Gorbunov, they ran hundreds of science experiments, maintained the station's systems, saw the arrival and departure of eight visiting vehicles and performed three spacewalks.

Williams and Wilmore's extended stay on the station led to some media reports and President Trump to incorrectly describe them as "stranded" or "stuck" in space. At all times, however, the two astronauts had an assured ride home. Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and advisor to Trump, said he offered to launch another Dragon to return Williams and Wilmore earlier, but the status of the other capsules called that claim into question.

"We came up prepared to stay long even though we planned to stay short; that is what we do in human spaceflight," Wilmore said, replying to a reporter's question while still on the station.

Starliner's Crew Flight Test and Dragon's Crew-9 marked Williams' and Wilmore's third flight to and from space. On this mission, the two astronauts traveled 121,347,491 statute miles (195,289,857 kilometers) while completing 4,576 trips around Earth in 286 days.

Williams now has a career total of 608 days in space, the second-most of any U.S. astronaut after Peggy Whitson, who has 675 days. Wilmore has spent 464 days off the planet over the course of his three missions.

Hague and Gorbunov traveled 72,553,920 statute miles (116,764,215 km) while circling Earth 2,736 times over a total of 171 days in space. This is also Hague's third spaceflight, for a total time off Earth of 374 days. (Gorbunov completed his first spaceflight.)

Crew-9 was SpaceX's ninth operational and 10th overall mission to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station for NASA since 2020. This was the fourth flight for Crew Dragon Freedom, having earlier transported Crew-4 in 2022 and the second and third commercial flights for Axiom Space in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

https://www.space.com/space-exploration ... splashdown

This nightmare is officially over now so this thread can drift off into the ether like Boeing's credibility. Various reports state that Boeing is trying to sell what's left of the Starliner program. IMO, it ought to be 100% shit-canned. Starliner, SLS, and ULA are so far over budget and so far behind schedule that Boeing may have to scrap or have a fire sale on all three programs. Your tax dollars at work! Where the fuck is DOGE?

StrawMan wrote: ↑Wed Mar 19, 2025 3:43 am The four Crew-9 members splashed down safely at 5:57 p.m. EDT (2157 GMT) off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. (They are the first crew to land in that body of water since President Donald Trump signed an executive order redesignating it as the Gulf of America.)

Rack the author for using the real name of the Gulf.

I haven’t seen the news. Are the thank yous pouring in for Elon?

I’m sure Dems, libs, trans, drag queens, Tesla-haters, etc are all singing his praises, right?



By the way, I’ve always referred to that body of water Roux mentioned as Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl. That’s the proper nomenclature.

I'm assuming that DOGE will be slashing contracts for SpaceX, just like everything else. That will happen, right? Right? Hello? Tap, tap, is this thing on?

I see where you're trying to go, but why would DOGE audit SpaceX? SpaceX is currently the only commercial spaceflight company that delivers rock solid results ahead of schedule and for pennies on the dollar compared to Boeing and Lockheed. They have also inspired other privately-held companies to innovate.

Look up the programs that Boeing & Lockheed are handling for NASA; Orion, Artemis, SLS, and ULA for starters. Every one of these programs are massively over-budget and behind schedule, and they have the nerve to expect more of our tax dollars through contracts that have no budget ceilings and T dates. Their results to date are depressing.

Example: One major delay is the Orion capsule's heat shield. Why in G0d's name would they use the same heat shield materials as the Apollo flights? SpaceX has developed numerous heat shield tiles, and each generation innovates and performs better than the last. Orion, SLS, and ULA are based on antiquated technology and they're not on a path that encourages innovation. Innovation is the currency of advancing spaceflight.

SpaceX is far from perfect, but the speed, safety, and innovation they have delivered to date is remarkable.

DOGE should audit ALL of NASA, period. There are billions of dollars being wasted and abused in most NASA contracts with the big vendors like Boeing and Lockheed. If SpaceX gets caught up in it, so be it.

StrawMan wrote: ↑Wed Mar 19, 2025 3:22 pm why would DOGE audit SpaceX

Because they have been firing staff and cutting budgets throughout the federal government without regard to the respective merits, or lack thereof.

And they appear rather proud of that method as well.

DOGE is going after bloated, ill-functioning government entities.

SpaceX doesn’t fit those parameters.

Just wondering, do you actually believe what you just wrote?

Roux wrote: ↑Wed Mar 19, 2025 3:53 pm

The guy in the picture I believe, is a bit familiar with Spacex.

Roux wrote: ↑Wed Mar 19, 2025 5:13 pm Just wondering, do you actually believe what you just wrote?

Sure do.

What is it you find incorrect?

Well, to consider just one example, when all new employees are terminated, that is not done on the basis of merit. They were terminated merely because of the date that they were hired, not because of their lack of performance.

Sudden Sam wrote: ↑Wed Mar 19, 2025 5:49 pm

Roux wrote: ↑Wed Mar 19, 2025 5:13 pm Just wondering, do you actually believe what you just wrote?

Sure do.

What is it you find incorrect?

Don't expect a response.

Just like Biden, he uses an auto-pen to provide his vacuous rejoinders.

Roux wrote: ↑Wed Mar 19, 2025 6:18 pm Well, to consider just one example, when all new employees are terminated, that is not done on the basis of merit. They were terminated merely because of the date that they were hired, not because of their lack of performance.

If they were Biden term hires, good riddance. They weren’t hired based on merit, so fuck ‘em.

Everyone appointed by Biden is unqualified?

Sven Golly wrote: ↑Wed Mar 19, 2025 6:19 pm Just like Biden, he uses an auto-pen

For decades, every Governor and every President has used an auto-pen, and it has never been an issue until the orange felon tried to make it one.

And as is customary with him, every accusation is a confession:

Roux wrote: ↑Wed Mar 19, 2025 9:07 pm Everyone appointed by Biden is unqualified?

Not necessarily, but every appointment is tarnished and suspect because of his DEI garbage.