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llamacoffee

NASA says it is “evaluating all options” for the safe return of Starliner crew (arstechnica.com)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by llamacoffee to c/[email protected]

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One informed source said it was greater than a 50-50 chance that the crew would come back on Dragon. Another source said it was significantly more likely than not they would. To be clear, NASA has not made a final decision. This probably will not happen until at least next week. It is likely that Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator, will make the call.

Asked if it was now more likely than not that Starliner's crew would return on Dragon, NASA spokesperson Josh Finch told Ars on Thursday evening, " NASA is evaluating all options for the return of agency astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station as safely as possible. No decisions have been made and the agency will continue to provide updates on its planning."

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[–] pennomi 16 points 5 months ago (2 children)

My bet is that the capsule stayed in orbit far longer than it should, and they’ve lost pressure to leaks or they discovered something else that didn’t age well.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Interesting hypothesis. I hope NASA release more info soon.

[–] halcyoncmdr -5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

But there were commenters here on lemmy telling anyone talking about that possibility at the time that the leaks weren't an issue. That even if it were, it would take 14+ weeks until it even started to possibly be an issue at the leak rate. But that wasn't even a factor because the valves were closed, so there weren't any current leaks.

They couldn't possibly have been wrong could they?

[–] pennomi 24 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You care far too much about some random person on the internet being wrong. I see multiple comments on just this article.

That being said, I think trusting official word from NASA is far more sensible than speculation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I don't think it's just about random wrong internet person. Anyone saying something other than 'it's nothing' was borderline ridiculed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The important part is that you found a way to be smug about a dangerous situation

[–] halcyoncmdr 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

There is absolutely no danger related to this situation unless Boeing/NASA insist on using Starliner without being certain there won't be more issues.

Starliner won't be used if they aren't absolutely certain they can fly it back safely. And there is already a proven vehicle available to rescue the crew if necessary. This is a side effect of having multiple companies create launch vehicles post-Shuttle. If one design has an issue, there's another available to use instead while they figure that out.