Boeing delays 1st Starliner astronaut launch for NASA indefinitely over parachute, wiring safety issues

[Admin]

Boeing is standing down for the first-ever crewed launch of its Starliner capsule for NASA due to safety issues with the spacecraft's parachutes and wiring.

Boeing delays 1st Starliner astronaut launch for NASA indefinitely over parachute, wiring safety issues : Read more

 

[gammaboo]

Anyone else see the astronauts doing an Apollo 1 and putting a lemon on top of the "spacecraft"?

 

[Brad]

Stick a fork in it.

 

[MicchaelL65]

I wonder what is going through the minds of the astronauts scheduled to fly this thing for the first time? It should be obvious to anyone that this ship ain't gonna fly, but Boeing keeps insisting that everything will be fine - eventually. Starliner is another Challenger or Columbia waiting to happen.

How did we get to the point where one of the most iconic aerospace companies - Boeing - become so incompetent. It used to be, 'If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going! Now it's, 'If it's Boeing, I ain't going!' Time to put this thing (Starliner) out of its misery.

 

[Brad]

I wonder what is going through the minds of the astronauts scheduled to fly this thing for the first time? It should be obvious to anyone that this ship ain't gonna fly, but Boeing keeps insisting that everything will be fine - eventually. Starliner is another Challenger or Columbia waiting to happen.

How did we get to the point where one of the most iconic aerospace companies - Boeing - become so incompetent. It used to be, 'If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going! Now it's, 'If it's Boeing, I ain't going!' Time to put this thing (Starliner) out of its misery.

One of the saddest days in this country when a company like Boeing becomes this irrelevant.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

The only good thing about Starliner is that it will (would) land on land instead of splashing down at sea. But, Russia has been doing that for decades, so developing that isn't the real problem with Boeing getting its act together.

What I would really like to see is Sierra Space's Dream Chaser get mated to a SpaceX reusable launch vehicle, so that we eventually reuse everything we launch, and landings are back on land for boosters and at regular landing strips for astronauts.

 

[MicchaelL65]

The only good thing about Starliner is that it will (would) land on land instead of splashing down at sea. But, Russia has been doing that for decades, so developing that isn't the real problem with Boeing getting its act together.

What I would really like to see is Sierra Space's Dream Chaser get mated to a SpaceX reusable launch vehicle, so that we eventually reuse everything we launch, and landings are back on land for boosters and at regular landing strips for astronauts.

SpaceX Dragon was originally designed to land on land. NASA said, 'No.' I cannot remember what the excuse was. It seemed as if there was some trust issues between NASA and a Private Contractor back then. Obviously NASA and SpaceX have overcome those issues (if they ever existed.)

Sierra Space has no plans to work with SpaceX, at least as far as I know right now. The plan is to use ULA's Vulcan-Centaur Booster to launch Dream Chaser. I believe that Dream Chaser was to have its first Orbital Test flight later in 2023 That has likely changed due to issues with the Vulcan launch vehicle taking longer than expected.

There is also a planned European Variant of Dream Chaser that will use the upcoming Arianespace Ariane 6 launcher.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

Yes, I know the plans as they are, today. But, those plans do not reuse the booster vehicle, so do not have the same potential economies of reusable boosters. And, I don't remember Dream Chaser's current plans getting back to their original goal of it being a crewed vehicle.

So, what I am saying is that a combination of the reusable booster and the glide-return-to-landing spacecraft concepts seems like a good future goal. It would seem that Dream Chaser could be modified to use SpaceX boosters faster than the Vulcan or Ariane vehicles can be made recoverable/reusable or that SpaceX could develop its own glide-return vehicle.

But, either way would be a more economical process than fishing SpaceX capsules out of the water or retrieving Boeing capsules from the desert. So, I expect that someday we will get glide-return space craft launched by reusable boosters.