> The more time that has passed, the more NASA has said it is leaning toward using SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which has been ferrying crews to the station since 2020, to get the crew home.
This and the other comments in the article, and that they keep drawing the process out, makes me think they’re going with Dragon. It says that they don’t have enough data, and they may never have enough data to know if the CFT capsule is safe. Better to bring the astronauts back on Dragon than get two people killed.
This mission should never have launched. They should have seen the helium leaks and gone back to the factory.
it_is_over_2024 on
I can’t believe Starliner does a crewed return. Certainly not this close to an election. It would be a nightmare for Harris’s campaign if something goes wrong, and no candidate would risk that
death_by_chocolate on
>The ethos of the agency was molded in part during the disasters of space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, which cost the lives of 14 astronauts combined, and imbued in the agency a culture of safety.
If this is remotely true then I cannot grasp how this decision is in any way difficult. You default to your known safe option and if Boeing gets a black eye thereby that’s just the way the mop flops. Maybe they deserve to fail.
fd6270 on
I wouldn’t be surprised if they already made the decision to return them on Dragon, but are withholding the announcement of that decision due to political reasons.Â
jack-K- on
If politics weren’t lingering it would have already been decided.
5 Comments
> The more time that has passed, the more NASA has said it is leaning toward using SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which has been ferrying crews to the station since 2020, to get the crew home.
This and the other comments in the article, and that they keep drawing the process out, makes me think they’re going with Dragon. It says that they don’t have enough data, and they may never have enough data to know if the CFT capsule is safe. Better to bring the astronauts back on Dragon than get two people killed.
This mission should never have launched. They should have seen the helium leaks and gone back to the factory.
I can’t believe Starliner does a crewed return. Certainly not this close to an election. It would be a nightmare for Harris’s campaign if something goes wrong, and no candidate would risk that
>The ethos of the agency was molded in part during the disasters of space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, which cost the lives of 14 astronauts combined, and imbued in the agency a culture of safety.
If this is remotely true then I cannot grasp how this decision is in any way difficult. You default to your known safe option and if Boeing gets a black eye thereby that’s just the way the mop flops. Maybe they deserve to fail.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they already made the decision to return them on Dragon, but are withholding the announcement of that decision due to political reasons.Â
If politics weren’t lingering it would have already been decided.