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Boeing's Starliner


Kryten

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1 hour ago, Canopus said:

I went to one of my wife's medical meetings, and an retired doc friend of hers was a B-57 pilot before he was a doc. An RB-57F (spyplane). He kept going to medical meetings in retirement, and had a little more free time at the meeting, so I ended up hanging out with him and his wife quite a bit. Super interesting aircraft.

 

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21 minutes ago, Treveli said:

I'm getting a bit confused. Is this capsule going to be reused in future manned missions? Cause I thought I'd read that NASA didn't want to reuse them, or was that just Dragon?

I heard them say in the press conference this morning they want to use them 10 times. 

Edited by Just Jim
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21 minutes ago, Treveli said:

I'm getting a bit confused. Is this capsule going to be reused in future manned missions? Cause I thought I'd read that NASA didn't want to reuse them, or was that just Dragon?

They mentioned on stream that it will be reused, and Wikipedia list the second manned mission as reusing the flown Capsule.

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34 minutes ago, Treveli said:

I'm getting a bit confused. Is this capsule going to be reused in future manned missions? Cause I thought I'd read that NASA didn't want to reuse them, or was that just Dragon?

That's just Dragon. NASA reuse of Dragon was abandoned with the loss of propulsive landing. Not splashing down is much better for reuse (salt water being what it is).

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https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/nnk14ma75c-attachment-j-03-pws.pdf

Quote

The Contractor’s flight test program shall include an uncrewed orbital flight test to the ISS.The OFT shall include a CCTS that validates end-to-end connectivity, LV and CST-100integration, launch and flight operations, automated rendezvous and proximity operations, and docking with the ISS, assuming ISS approval.

How do they get around this? It's Boeing, so it gets ignored, I assume?

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6 hours ago, tater said:

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/nnk14ma75c-attachment-j-03-pws.pdf

How do they get around this? It's Boeing, so it gets ignored, I assume?

A very good question...

"But.... but... but... repeating the test will cost billions and delay the program even longer. It's just a software bug, we'll fix it, we got this!"

Never mind that we've seen how Boeing lets bugs slip and then fix them so quickly after a problem.....

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  • 2 weeks later...
3 hours ago, tater said:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/bridenstine/2020/01/07/nasa-update-on-boeings-orbital-flight-test/

Nothing new other than a few months of investigation, and in less time than that some statement on if they require a second OFT.

I'll bet they don't, even though I think they should have to do one (at their own cost).

I'm fairly sure Boeing (space)/ULA doesn't do *anything* at their own cost (not sure about their own lobbying.  Probably not even that).  This makes a lot of sense when your entire business revolves around a single customer.  If that customer won't pay for something, it means they don't want it and won't pay for any follow on work.

Boeing might be a bit more willing to do such stuff (and used to going at it alone to win airline sales), but that simply isn't how government contractors work.

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There's an article on the wire services today talking about NASA's dilemma regarding the Starliner. NASA really doesn't want any more delays, and it's super expensive to do another flight test. But the plan did call for an uncrewed docking. NASA is pondering whether to just proceed with a crewed flight or require an uncrewed flight. The only thing that wasn't successfully tested was the actual docking, and they seem to think that's a low-risk item.

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33 minutes ago, Scotius said:

 I wonder what the astronauts assigned to first crewed flight think about it? :/ It will be their lives in danger if another thing goes wrong.

I don't think safety is a huge issue, though the failure might be indicative of deeper issues.

Mostly I think it's a fairness issue. It's a fixed price contract, and they've already been given more after the fact (on top of them winning vs Sierra Nevada at a much higher price). If the contract requires it, they should do it, and with the same, fixed price they are contracted for.

 

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