Here’s the latest.

It's amazing to me that everyone keeps expecting great things from Boeing. My guess is that SpaceX will get the two and bring them back.

If they REALLY need that thing moved, I know a couple of salvage guys. Just tell them Boeing missed a couple of payments and the Starliner is theirs for the taking. Boom. That thing will be at the scrap yard by quitting time on friday...

NBC News: NASA IG Report on Boeing QC

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... 2335&ei=30

Gosh, thats a real shocker.

If the station can release the clamps on its end and free the spacecraft, the Canadarm could grasp it and move it out of the way enough for another vehicle to use the docking port, but that’s probably not something they would want to try.

A new report finds Boeing’s rockets are built with an unqualified work force
NASA declines to penalize Boeing for the deficiencies.




https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/a ... ork-force/

It's more complicated than just "releasing clamps".

Thanks John, that’s a great video.

Yeah, I didn’t imagine that it was a simple arrangement, but I also didn’t know that (a) The active part of the operation is conducted on the spacecraft side, and (b) that the station has no way to jettison a docked vehicle. That seems a bit risky to me since a fire or other major issue on a docked vehicle could jeopardize the station and there wouldn’t be any way to detach it.

I suspect there is some form of manual emergency release that can be activated from either side but I can't find anything online confirming that. I did find some discussion about including requirements for that back in the 80s.

BTW, both sides (capsule and ISS) have passive and active "hooks" so the normal undocking would need power in the spacecraft and the ISS.

Yeah but that may involve some separation that would permanently disable the docking adapter, and without the Shuttle to deliver a replacement (if one exists) IDK if there is a way to replace it.

A ton of speculation, but whatever the case, it’s complicated, time consuming, and expensive.

Thanks Boeing!

Chances are, Boeing can "reconfigure" the Starliner to undock and deoribit autonomously if they want to go that way. But typing up the docking port for the better part of a year seems to be their plan.

If I was NASA I'd tell Boeing to get that POS off my space station withing 30 days or we'll find a way to do that ourselves.


Yeah but that may involve some separation that would permanently disable the docking adapter, and without the Shuttle to deliver a replacement (if one exists) IDK if there is a way to replace it.

A ton of speculation, but whatever the case, it’s complicated, time consuming, and expensive.

Thanks Boeing!

Actually I think they're the same plan.

The issue with autonomous return is in the way the vehicle was designed. The automated portion of the flight control system was intended to be configured for semi-manual operation. They added a version to allow for automated operation for the flight demonstration, which worked fine, but instead of implementing them as parallel paths with a switch between them, Boeing flew the automated mission and then replaced that software with the semi-manual version. So, right now there is a configuration that says something like "when all conditions are met and somebody pushes the "undock" button, release the docking clamps, count to ten, and give a 2 second burst on thrusters W,X,Y, and Z." The problem is with the "when" part of that statement. It used to say something like "when signal UnDock is received from mission control, release the docking clamps, count to ten, and give a 2 second burst on thrusters W,X,Y, and Z." The two are almost the same, but the "configuration" is such that the undock action is triggered by different events. There is no provision to switch it on the fly.

According to Boeing, and I'm inclined to believe them on this", it will take a month to take the old configuration file, modify it to work on the current Starliner, and then test it sufficiently to know that they haven't screwed something up trying to update an obsolete batch of code. Then they need to be able to load it into Starliner's computer(s) remotely, which has probably never been done.

If they can accomplish that and get Starliner off the station, then they have a place to dock Dragon with Crew 9. It sounds like they do not plan to send up an extra Dragon, instead Crew 8 will go home on their Dragon, Crew 9 will be reduced to two astronauts vs four, and Butch and Suni get to hang out until Crew 9's mission is complete in February.

If they can't get Starliner undocked, future crew and resupply missions may have to be pushed back. That would put serious pressure on NASA to bring it back with a crew on board.

Spacex ought to charge them the walk up charter rate. Learjet 60s are expensive, this should be a lot more.

Ward Carroll weights in -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdcr4T7IWCM