this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2025
172 points (98.3% liked)

Space

10265 readers
52 users here now

Share & discuss informative content on: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Space Exploration, Planetary Science and Astrobiology.


Rules

  1. Be respectful and inclusive.
  2. No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
  3. Engage in constructive discussions.
  4. Share relevant content.
  5. Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
  6. Use appropriate language and tone.
  7. Report violations.
  8. Foster a continuous learning environment.

Picture of the Day

The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula


Related Communities

🔭 Science

🚀 Engineering

🌌 Art and Photography


Other Cool Links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Starliner’s flight to the space station was far wilder than most of us thought

top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago

And this is why, all those years ago, the Mercury and Apollo astronauts fought against a fully automatic ride without manual controls (which was NASA's original design)

[–] clothes@lemmy.world 54 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This article is worth the read. Starliner was in an extremely precarious situation that we didn't previously know about.

[–] notsure@fedia.io 14 points 1 day ago

but shouldn't boeing, of all companies, known of the possible failures? this seems like the bottom line "trump"ed safety...

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

There is an exorbitant of fluff in there though. Expertly so, it's no ai slop, but someone very cleverly writing, getting payed by the word and rolling it out.

'Thrusters failed, they turned off and on again, during that time the pilot had to manually fly it. Ironically thanks God afterwards.'

Is the gist of it, but there's a lot of introspection, retrospection, repeating, rehashing and rephrasing. Reminded me of this Mitchell and Webb scetch

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 day ago

repeating, rehashing and rephrasing

Remember when writing was Prose and poetry had rhythm?

It's okay to say words, a few times and in different order, for effect.

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There was a lot more to the article than this. I've sat on console during launches,and reading their exchange gave me some anxiety. Trying to live troubleshoot thrusters issues would be a nightmare on an unscrewed satellite, let a lone one where it's human rated, and the people flying it could die if you are unable to recover fast enough.

You train for this crap excessively, so everyone knows what to do, but that doesn't make it any less nerve wracking in the moment.

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 0 points 1 day ago

I know I overstated it a bit, and there was more to it, but I've read the same story thrice at some point.

I want trying to downplay the astronauts archievement either, though I found them thanking the Lord over criticizing the company that made a bird so prone to failure a bit strange.

The writing style I found very curious, though it was skillfully written I think there's art in being succinct, and that art was lacking it was almost literary edging.

[–] notsure@fedia.io 37 points 1 day ago

after reading the article, i must admit, fuck boeing.....

[–] Mearuu@kbin.melroy.org 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Why was this not mentioned before?

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Shareholder value. And preserving the scam of privatizing NASA's source of earth orbit launches.

[–] desmosthenes@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] Mearuu@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That article states it was 56 days after the incident. I meant my question as to why it was not released at the time of the incident. So unless you can show an earlier appearance, my question stands.

Furthermore, the comment immediately preceding mine stated that it was not mentioned at the time. Context matters.

[–] desmosthenes@lemmy.world 2 points 41 minutes ago* (last edited 39 minutes ago) (1 children)

i’m not gonna play defense for NASA or Boeing, just assuming it takes time to investigate properly - probably some PR mentality went into it too but here you go https://www.space.com/starliner-astronaut-mission-landing-delay-july-2024

[–] Mearuu@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 23 minutes ago

Thank you for taking the time to find that.

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, I remember reading multiple times about ppl being stuck on the ISS. Idk how ppl could miss it.

[–] Mearuu@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 1 day ago

The issue is when they released the information. Not if they did.

Also the issue is about the faulty thrusters. Not them being stuck on the station. Everyone knew that.

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Huh? I thought we all knew this? There's really nothing new in the article.