Boeing Starliner

[Beati Dogu]

And they're still in use today.

[Eric Mc]

Beati Dogu said:

And they're still in use today.

Mainly as historic "joy ride" type aircraft it has to be said. The first jet airliners entered service from the mid 1950s. By the mid 1960s it was obvious that the piston engined airliner was not really viable anymore. Piston engined airliners were still carrying fare paying passengers well into the 1970s and some soldiered on into the 1980s.

A very similar thing happened with the switch from steam to diesel and electric power on the railways. Old technology takes a while to be completely replaced and may even survive in special circumstances.

[MartG]

Crew change announced for 1st crewed flight

http://www.startribune.com/nasa-replaces-astronaut...

[MartG]

Delay of first flight to NET August 2019 now confirmed, though oddly NASA are trying to blame ULA when it is clear from info in the article that it's the spacecraft which isn't ready :/

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2019/04/curious-mo...

[Flooble]

Is that the one that was supposed to launch about the same time as the Crew Dragon, or am I getting confused?

[MartG]

Flooble said:

Is that the one that was supposed to launch about the same time as the Crew Dragon, or am I getting confused?

Yes - both Crew Dragon and Starliner are being developed under contract to NASA for commercial crew launch services. Just don't mention that Boeing have been paid roughly twice as much as SpaceX for the same service, yet are running late...

[MartG]

Rescue team members using a Boeing CST-100 Starliner training capsule, known as Boiler Plate 3, to practice uprighting procedures in the unlikely event of an emergency resulting in a splashdown. NASA and the Department of Defense Human Space Flight Support Office Rescue Division conducted a search and rescue training exercise at the Army Wharf at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on April 16/17, 2019. The manual uprighting airbags could be used to lift the spacecraft to its upright position. This is the first at-sea exercise with the Starliner training capsule ahead of Boeing’s Crew Flight Test with astronauts targeted for later this year. During normal return scenarios, Boeing's Starliner will land on land in a safe zone of about 15 square miles in the Western United States. Throughout the commercial crew development phases with NASA, Boeing has performed dozens of qualification tests on its parachute and airbag systems simulating conditions on land and in the water.

[Eric Mc]

At least it didn't sink - like the Apollo Command Module did on one of its early dunking tests.

[Toaster]

Eric Mc said:

At least it didn't sink - like the Apollo Command Module did on one of its early dunking tests.

But its not Apollo maybe that needs to be in the history thread, this is Orion..maybe lessons were learnt

[MartG]

Toaster said:

Eric Mc said:

At least it didn't sink - like the Apollo Command Module did on one of its early dunking tests.

But its not Apollo maybe that needs to be in the history thread, this is Orion..maybe lessons were learnt

Ah, yet another fatuous comment from Toaster - and you can't even get the spacecraft right

[Eric Mc]

Not worth responding too - to be honest. Humour is completely absent in some people.

[Toaster]

MartG said:

Toaster said:

Eric Mc said:

At least it didn't sink - like the Apollo Command Module did on one of its early dunking tests.

But its not Apollo maybe that needs to be in the history thread, this is Orion..maybe lessons were learnt

Ah, yet another fatuous comment from Toaster - and you can't even get the spacecraft right

Exactly Apollo is so old it has no relevance so I could have said Dragon.

[Beati Dogu]

The Atlas V booster and Centaur upper stage for the manned Starliner mission to the ISS have arrive at Port Canaveral, Florida.

Transported via ship from Alabama, which is about a 10 day journey via various rivers, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic.

[MartG]

Unmanned test flight now expected to take place in October

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/08/26/boeing-space...

[MartG]

Now slipped to Dec 17th

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/10/09/boeing-revea...

The test flight will follow the pad abort test on Nov 4th

Edited by MartG on Thursday 10th October 20:11

[Chester35]

Bit different from the race to space in the 1960s when competitors put at least monkeys / dogs in the craft !

Safety is taking it's toll ........

[Eric Mc]

We don't need to shoot monkeys onto space these days. You could actually argue that the delay in sending one particular monkey into space is what caused Kennedy to commit NASA to landing a man on the moon.

[MartG]

Starliner update article

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/10/boeings-st...

[MartG]

ULA Twitter update

https://twitter.com/ulalaunch/status/1191329877452...

[Eric Mc]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NLQ4bO-f58