Eight weeks after the Starliner spacecraft launched, NASA is still looking for possible answers to its technical issues—including the possibility of SpaceX lending a hand.
I mean, Soyuz is the emergency rescue plan. Usually 2 of them sit docked to the ISS at all times for just this purpose. But regardless, the Starliner is functional enough they could leave right now if they had to. They just aren’t stranded, NASA isn’t just like… lying.
The Starliner has redundant systems and even with several thrusters offline it’s still within safe operating parameters. They’re keeping it docked because they want to figure out the problem, not because they need to figure out the problem.
There isn’t a dragon capsule ready to go at the moment, but it doesn’t really matter, it shouldn’t be needed. Because as I said, nobody is stranded, at least not yet.
All this reads weird. Private spacecraft sucks, recent Boing corporate culture sucks, SpaceX sucks even more. But this is Boings first flight and it seems it’s a relatively minor problem so I’m curious why there is so much backlash. I guess it’s a mixture between general anger at Boing for mismanaging their expertise, fatigue about private aeronautics and maybe spaceX fanboys?
Dunno. I’d imagine astronauts would kill for more time in space, part of this seems manufactured drama.
I mean, there isn’t really the wrong amount of backlash, it just gets misreported as more serious than it is, and then everyone enjoys dog piling on someone they can blame. But to be clear, Boeing is indeed fucking up pretty bad right now pretty much all over over the place.
And the truth is, Elon Musk sucks, probably more than ever. He’s becoming a worse human being by the minute. But SpaceX on the other hand, SpaceX has been doing great pretty much since they started. I understand being nervous about private space flight, the proposition is a bit of a gamble. But as much as Boeing is shitting the bed right and left, spaceX has been making up for it by nailing it pretty consistently.
Huh I recently watched a video about how SpaceX basically squandered the renewed interest in the moon (EDIT: It was actually a remix of a Smarter Every Day video, about how they need dozens of launches for a single flight to the moon). Arguably the creator Thunderf00t is a very biased shitposter, but their plan seemed absurd and included blatant corruption. Imho SpaceX has done some good stuff but it’s a pretty mixed bag.
Do you know a youtube channel that is smart about reporting about spaceflight without overt fanboy biases?
Do you know a youtube channel that is smart about reporting about spaceflight without overt fanboy biases?
Actually, yeah I do know some!
Probably the best source has to be Scott Manley, he reports on every rocket launch whether it’s in the US, China or anywhere else. He doesn’t seem to have any particular bias, he just likes space. He’s also really good at explaining things and actually qualified to talk about the subject, with his degrees in astronomy and physics.
There’s also Tim Dodd, everyday astronaut. He likes to do deep dives on how rockets work and compares various rockets and their capabilities. I wouldn’t say he’s unbiased so much as just a fanboy of all big awesome rockets…
They both like to do live streams for big exciting launches. Tim is so good at the streams, that one of the smaller rocket companies (I think Firefly or Astra) recently hired him to be the commentator on their official launch stream. Heh, then they didn’t actually make orbit… Doh!
And as you mentioned, Smarter Every Day is also really great. Destin isn’t really unbiased but he’s real up front about where his biases are. It’s clear that what really matters to him is the science and understanding what’s really going on.
Thanks! Already caught up a bit on Scott Manley, but I have to check out Tim Dodd too. His RFA / ISAR video is awesome. It seems a lot of new rocket and spacecraft have materialized in the last few years.
I mean, Soyuz is the emergency rescue plan. Usually 2 of them sit docked to the ISS at all times for just this purpose. But regardless, the Starliner is functional enough they could leave right now if they had to. They just aren’t stranded, NASA isn’t just like… lying.
The Starliner has redundant systems and even with several thrusters offline it’s still within safe operating parameters. They’re keeping it docked because they want to figure out the problem, not because they need to figure out the problem.
There isn’t a dragon capsule ready to go at the moment, but it doesn’t really matter, it shouldn’t be needed. Because as I said, nobody is stranded, at least not yet.
All this reads weird. Private spacecraft sucks, recent Boing corporate culture sucks, SpaceX sucks even more. But this is Boings first flight and it seems it’s a relatively minor problem so I’m curious why there is so much backlash. I guess it’s a mixture between general anger at Boing for mismanaging their expertise, fatigue about private aeronautics and maybe spaceX fanboys?
Dunno. I’d imagine astronauts would kill for more time in space, part of this seems manufactured drama.
I mean, there isn’t really the wrong amount of backlash, it just gets misreported as more serious than it is, and then everyone enjoys dog piling on someone they can blame. But to be clear, Boeing is indeed fucking up pretty bad right now pretty much all over over the place.
And the truth is, Elon Musk sucks, probably more than ever. He’s becoming a worse human being by the minute. But SpaceX on the other hand, SpaceX has been doing great pretty much since they started. I understand being nervous about private space flight, the proposition is a bit of a gamble. But as much as Boeing is shitting the bed right and left, spaceX has been making up for it by nailing it pretty consistently.
Huh I recently watched a video about how SpaceX basically squandered the renewed interest in the moon (EDIT: It was actually a remix of a Smarter Every Day video, about how they need dozens of launches for a single flight to the moon). Arguably the creator Thunderf00t is a very biased shitposter, but their plan seemed absurd and included blatant corruption. Imho SpaceX has done some good stuff but it’s a pretty mixed bag.
Do you know a youtube channel that is smart about reporting about spaceflight without overt fanboy biases?
Actually, yeah I do know some!
Probably the best source has to be Scott Manley, he reports on every rocket launch whether it’s in the US, China or anywhere else. He doesn’t seem to have any particular bias, he just likes space. He’s also really good at explaining things and actually qualified to talk about the subject, with his degrees in astronomy and physics.
There’s also Tim Dodd, everyday astronaut. He likes to do deep dives on how rockets work and compares various rockets and their capabilities. I wouldn’t say he’s unbiased so much as just a fanboy of all big awesome rockets…
They both like to do live streams for big exciting launches. Tim is so good at the streams, that one of the smaller rocket companies (I think Firefly or Astra) recently hired him to be the commentator on their official launch stream. Heh, then they didn’t actually make orbit… Doh!
And as you mentioned, Smarter Every Day is also really great. Destin isn’t really unbiased but he’s real up front about where his biases are. It’s clear that what really matters to him is the science and understanding what’s really going on.
Thanks! Already caught up a bit on Scott Manley, but I have to check out Tim Dodd too. His RFA / ISAR video is awesome. It seems a lot of new rocket and spacecraft have materialized in the last few years.