Crew Dragon inflight abort

Beeker

Very successful abort test by Spacex. Crewed flight hopefully before the summer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg0hXTwEYgw

Timmaay

Meanwhile Boeing continuing to make a balls of it:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/01/nasa-and-boeing-are-closely-looking-at-starliners-thruster-performance/

The NASA source said eight or more thrusters on the service module failed at one point and that one thruster never fired at all.

Capt'n Midnight

Timmaay wrote: »

Meanwhile Boeing continuing to make a balls of it:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/01/nasa-and-boeing-are-closely-looking-at-starliners-thruster-performance/

Luckily for Boeing they got paid nearly twice what SpaceX got.

The latest big Commercial Crew contracts were awarded in 2014. Boeing got $4.2 billion to finish development work on Starliner and fly six operational, crewed ISS missions. SpaceX got $2.6 billion to do the same with its Crew Dragon capsule.

At the rate Boeing are hitting those milestones it could be quicker and cheaper to outsource to India and rebadge Gaganyaan and the GSLV Mark III in the say way they've relied on lots of Russian hardware.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a30646158/india-humanoid-robot-vyommitra/

Capt'n Midnight

Oh dear Boeing hit with 61 safety fixes for astronaut capsule

Software errors not only left the Starliner in the wrong orbit following liftoff and precluded a visit to the International Space Station but they could have caused a collision between the capsule and its separated service module toward the end of the two-day flight. That error was caught and corrected by ground controllers just hours before touchdown.

"We could have lost a spacecraft twice during this mission," Loverro said.

61 issues :eek:

Good thing they aren't on a fixed price contact.


This has to be seen in the context of the 737 Max debacle. Here's some of the recent other issues you may not have heard of that scream of quality control failures. Just in case you thought this was the same Boeing it used to be.


Blackout Bug: Boeing 737 cockpit screens go blank if pilots land on specific runway

FAA faces dilemma over 737 MAX wiring flaw that Boeing missed

Boeing to inspect undelivered 737 Maxes for foreign object debris

You're not Boeing to believe this: Yet another show-stopping software bug found in ill-fated 737 Max airplanes

Cracks Found on Boeing’s 737 NG Pickle Forks

Beeker

Some serious problems for Boeing alright. Good job NASA decided to go with two options for crewed flights and not put all the eggs in one basket.