Boeing Starliner
Discussion
Around sunrise too. He mentioned a 7.00 am local time.
Based on what is being said at the press conference, it sounds to me that the controllers did well to assess what was going on quite quickly and stabilising the craft before they lost control of it completely.
It also seems that the glitch appeared when the Starliner was in a "dead zone" for telemetry communications - so they didn't get the data showing what was happening until a minute or so after it had started to go wrong.
Based on what is being said at the press conference, it sounds to me that the controllers did well to assess what was going on quite quickly and stabilising the craft before they lost control of it completely.
It also seems that the glitch appeared when the Starliner was in a "dead zone" for telemetry communications - so they didn't get the data showing what was happening until a minute or so after it had started to go wrong.
They made a mistake in the press conference saying crew could have fixed the error - press is going in for the kill...
Some are also raising the question of whether they need to rerun the flight or go straight to a manned test - surely a successful unmanned docking with the ISS is a contractual requirement ?
Some are also raising the question of whether they need to rerun the flight or go straight to a manned test - surely a successful unmanned docking with the ISS is a contractual requirement ?
Even if NASA don't require a repeat flight, it's certainly going to delay a manned mission by months.
Damn shame, but hopefully the re-entry process will complete safely, so they can complete that chapter of the test.
The Atlas V and new Centaur upper stage did their part flawlessly at least.
Damn shame, but hopefully the re-entry process will complete safely, so they can complete that chapter of the test.
The Atlas V and new Centaur upper stage did their part flawlessly at least.
MartG said:
Is it just me or is the ULA coverage rubbish compared to SpaceX:
720p rather than 1080p
No onscreen telemetry ( velocity, altitude etc. )
No onboard video of staging
No onboard video of Starliner separation
The audio presentation was far better than SpaceX but the video was far worse. For the audio they went into the crew capsule being grey as it was better in tests on the ablative side than white, that the thermal blanket and the black tiles same as on the SST but that the heat sink was new. Also that although the launch abort technology was active they shut it off from the actual motors just to avoid a false fire. All really cool..... then no images... 720p rather than 1080p
No onscreen telemetry ( velocity, altitude etc. )
No onboard video of staging
No onboard video of Starliner separation
Hopefully we will see the Rosie the dummy, er sorry, don't mean to be sexist, Rosie the Anthropomorphic Test Device, in action on re-entry.
Edited by Gandahar on Friday 20th December 16:58
I do love all the Boeing bashing by the SpaceX people. I hope Rosie is reading this after her "post insertion anomaly" disappointment 
Seriously though, it's not often nowadays you get issues in the orbit environment compared to pre launch or getting up there. At least they will be able to test the rather more tricky re-entry procedure to see how that goes, so more data to come. Of course last time they only got 2 parachutes out, so were cutting it fine, so hopefully they can all deploy this time. Otherwise it's more time to be added.
Next is SpaceX and their launch abort.
Given both teams progress so far I think if I was an astronaut I'd rather be on Orion going to the moon on top of SLS. That's going slow but sure in general.
Seriously though, it's not often nowadays you get issues in the orbit environment compared to pre launch or getting up there. At least they will be able to test the rather more tricky re-entry procedure to see how that goes, so more data to come. Of course last time they only got 2 parachutes out, so were cutting it fine, so hopefully they can all deploy this time. Otherwise it's more time to be added.
Next is SpaceX and their launch abort.
Given both teams progress so far I think if I was an astronaut I'd rather be on Orion going to the moon on top of SLS. That's going slow but sure in general.
MartG said:
They made a mistake in the press conference saying crew could have fixed the error - press is going in for the kill...
Some are also raising the question of whether they need to rerun the flight or go straight to a manned test - surely a successful unmanned docking with the ISS is a contractual requirement ?
The NASA Administrator was directly asked this in the press conference - https://youtu.be/NpQlxN4xbKM?t=1992 - and said he does not rule out approving a manned Starliner launch without first having demonstrated an unmanned ISS docking.Some are also raising the question of whether they need to rerun the flight or go straight to a manned test - surely a successful unmanned docking with the ISS is a contractual requirement ?
eharding said:
MartG said:
They made a mistake in the press conference saying crew could have fixed the error - press is going in for the kill...
Some are also raising the question of whether they need to rerun the flight or go straight to a manned test - surely a successful unmanned docking with the ISS is a contractual requirement ?
The NASA Administrator was directly asked this in the press conference - https://youtu.be/NpQlxN4xbKM?t=1992 - and said he does not rule out approving a manned Starliner launch without first having demonstrated an unmanned ISS docking.Some are also raising the question of whether they need to rerun the flight or go straight to a manned test - surely a successful unmanned docking with the ISS is a contractual requirement ?
If Space X does a good abort test if I was NASA I would say good to go if the parachute tests have passed. If Starliner lands ok with 3 parachutes soon then I would ask them to do another end to end test unmanned,,,, what's the rush?
I wouldn't want to get into two commercial companies racing like the countries in the 60's.
Both teams will get this done for 2020 manned missions.
Einion Yrth said:
Gandahar said:
Given both teams progress so far I think if I was an astronaut I'd rather be on Orion going to the moon on top of SLS. That's going slow but sure in general.
Yes it's slow, but still 100%.
Scott Manley's video on the Starliner launch is now up and as informative as ever -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QKr4-tNtPc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QKr4-tNtPc
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