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Boeing, NASA say Starliner astronaut launch will move forward despite spacecraft helium leak (www.cnbc.com)

submitted 6 months ago by Wilshire to c/space

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Remember when we allowed the Columbia to reenter despite concerns of heat shield damage?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (1 children)

There really wasn’t another option for Columbia. It was die in space or die trying to land.

[–] Carighan 8 points 6 months ago (2 children)

What about the two alternatives that were forwarded after the accident, either a rescue mission or in-orbit repairs?

Sure, both were far from a guaranteed success. Far from. Still better than nothing. As in: They were another option than just letting it explode.

[–] Spedwell 3 points 6 months ago (3 children)

I thought both of these were actually impossible for Columbia. IIRC the rescue mission was impossible because there were no available vehicles, and the EVA equipment onboard would let them inspect the tiles but they couldn't actually fix them.

[–] Carighan 6 points 6 months ago

Atlantis was already scheduled to fly not too long after, and the CAIB discussed that there was a possibility of moving the launch up as Columbia could have stayed an extraordinary long time in orbit due to their specific mission loadout.

Repairs with harvested tiles were also discussed but yeah , chance of success rated as low. Still, better than deorbiting with nothing done.

[–] DarkCloud 5 points 6 months ago

NASA has been known to do the impossible from time to time.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 6 months ago

Didn’t have the equipment for either.

We don’t have a rescue ship just sitting around. It’d take months to get one ready.