this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2024
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Context?
Boeing, a corporation known for suiciding whistleblowers who’ve spoken out against the poor workmanship of their airplanes, sent a crew to the ISS in an equally poorly made space vehicle.
It, named the Starliner, encountered significant technical problems on the way up, and now the crew is stuck waiting for a return flight.
Minor correction: Their return flight (the Crew-9 Dragon) arrived on September 29th, it just isn't scheduled to leave until March. They aren't "stuck", and could safely evacuate the ISS in the event of an emergency.
I think this is an important distinction, but having an emergency escape vehicle available isn't exactly the same as being able to just leave.
I think the takeaway from this is that a backup return vehicle maybe should have been prepared before Boeing got the go-ahead for this launch.
Maybe, but I bet they are secretly a bit happy that their stay got extended. They are both experienced astronauts, and this could be their last spaceflight. Suni gets to be ISS commander too.
What vehicle would it be? For political reasons, Soyuz is probably out. That just leaves Dragon. It seems like a bit of a waste to launch a 4-seater capsule empty, and if you fill the remaining two seats with astronauts, you might as well have them stay for a while, which is exactly where we are today.