a failure of some of the thrusters on the Starliner capsule has stranded astronauts on the ISS

just heard about it on KTLA

at least a door didn't fly off, yet...

Not exactly new. The Starliner issue was discovered over a month ago (mid June), and the two astronauts have been waiting on the space station ever since as Boeing/NASA work on potential fixes. A month longer than originally planned.

It’s going to be awesome when they finally hire Spacex to bring them back to earth.

I heard this morning they're going to try again to bring the Starliner down later today. Not sure whether that's with actual people in it though.

Well if they bring it back uncrewed and it has a problem all they lose is a hull but they gain an open docking port.

I wonder if Musk has made an offer yet?

Add another couple of lesbians to the team. Problem solved

As for Musk and SpaceX saving the day, don't forget that they are on a launch hold due to the Falcon Engine failure on their last Starlink launch.

I don't doubt that they will clear the issue and regain flight status, but at the moment there are no US launch vehicles capable to get a capsule to the ISS (to my knowledge).

...hello Vladimir, this is your friend Joe --- yes that Joe, I have a favor...

The Starliner part that has the Problem Thrusters burns up on re-entry. So if they don't figure it out before hand they won't be able to afterwards.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Add another couple of lesbians to the team. Problem solved

The really sad part is they knew they had a problem, but since they were so far behind on the schedule and overbudget they launched them anyway.

I actually know one of the astronauts - Butch (Barry Wilmore). I used to go to church with him.

quote:

Originally posted by Gibb:
As for Musk and SpaceX saving the day, don't forget that they are on a launch hold due to the Falcon Engine failure on their last Starlink launch.

I don't doubt that they will clear the issue and regain flight status, but at the moment there are no US launch vehicles capable to get a capsule to the ISS (to my knowledge).

Return to Flight...

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1817094986590224446

Boeing will bring them back. All the way to the scene of the crash

Nothing to see here folks, move along. Boeing says Starliner good to go.

Hey Elon, can you help a brother out? We've got a Helium leak, a couple of thrusters are still sh*tting the bed and NASA & Boeing disagree about whether we should man up and just come back or stay. In the meantime, they've sent a recording of Gilligan's Island for us to listen too.

No worries, if we bounce off the atmosphere and head toward Mars, we hitch a ride back your Mars probe.

Oh, we gotta wait until February? No problem we've got extra TV dinners we can eat. Thanks!

An interesting aspect is- Boeing didn't load the Autonomous flight software so Starliner can only come back with a crew on board.

Starliner, the Bayliner of spacecraft. I hope they bought the trip insurance.

Well isn't that just special

Wonder who the rocket scientist was that decided that sound be a good idea.

an update - NASA is now thinking they will have to ditch the 'Starliner' and get SpaceX to bring the stranded astronauts home on a Dragon

Boeing was awarded twice the money that SpaceX was for the development, took far more time, and still failed miserably

Who didn't see this coming