this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 105 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Totally not stranded, according to Boeing.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 4 months ago (3 children)

They aren't stranded because there is the emergency capsule to get them back.

Classic corporate doublespeak and half truths.

[–] [email protected] 76 points 4 months ago

They’re not stranded because the part of the capsule that isn’t working has multiple redundancy and is intended to burn up on reentry anyway.

Starliner is perfectly capable of leaving the ISS whenever they want, but they would be unable to continue collecting data on the thruster shutoff (again, because it would burn up in the atmosphere).

[–] [email protected] 43 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Completely untrue. There are currently only 3 human-rated spacecraft docked to the ISS and none of them are set aside as some sort of emergency capsule. There's no trickery here. The number of astronauts on board is equal to the number of seats available for them to ride back home in. The only reason they aren't stranded is because Starliner is still fully capable of undocking and taking them home whenever necessary. If it wasn't, then they would actually be stranded with no alternative way back beyond straping them to the floor of Dragon.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Getting strapped to the floor of a Dragon sounds like a great plot for a space thriller

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Wow, that's a great fucking read!

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Except the "emergency capsule" is all of them, including Starliner. Because Starliner is perfectly capable of returning to earth safely.

Because every thruster that has shut down has hot fired okay, and the known helium leaks still leave enough margin to cover several multiples of the 5 hours or so of RCS operation that you need to get to landing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I thought one thruster has been permanently disabled now? Not that that's a major problem, but it does eat into their redundancy somewhat.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Yeah that's right, they've decided to not use one of the 5 again because of performance inconsistencies.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

As long as they didn’t bring any whistles with them they’ll be fine!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Just pining for the microgravity.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

I mean, Boeing hasn't killed them in a fireball of death, hurtling at 18 thousand kph to the earth. The media has this totally wrong, for now. Everything is totally fine, at this time.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 4 months ago (4 children)

The people in every one of these Starliner threads seemingly hoping for the worst case scenario to occur just so they can dunk on Boeing for it are disturbing

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Lol. People want Boeing to fail, because they're corrupt, lying, poorly engineered pieces of shit riding on bribed politicians. They've already deliberately caused the deaths of hundreds of people due to willful and deliberate negligence to save a buck.

Nobody's wanting the astronauts to die. And they won't, they're safe on the space station, and there are multiple options to get them home safe even if they have to abandon the POS Starliner to do it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I'm not talking about people who just want Boeing to fail, I'm talking about the ones who think the best path to changing things is if they publicly kill two astronauts. eg. See the "morally gray" comment below

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Seriously, some of the comments and their phrasing actively gave me flashbacks to my days on stan twitter.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

I wish Stan Twitter had never started his company, at all.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The best case scenario is that boeing is put out of business and nobody else dies for some CEO's paycheck.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 4 months ago

There are 16 thrusters on the service module and they only need like 4. One is malfunctioning. They're trying to diagnose the problem to fix it for next time since the service module burns up on reentry.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Also, they totally know where their luggage is, it'll just take a couple of days to show up.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (3 children)

"Oh yeah, are you sure about that? Then why does my AirTag say it's already landed on Jupiter, hmm? I'd like to speak to your manager."

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I only want to retrieve my luggage, my child

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

Common mistake, AirTags don't work in space because there is no air.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That would imply there's an Apple device connected to the internet on Jupiter.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You can't prove there isn't!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

You could make a religion out of this.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago

People in prison aren't locked up, they're just taking their time to come out.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Boeing:

Guys!! Good news! You're not stranded! We just can't get you back for a couple of mo...er...weeks! Yeah! That's the ticket!

Astronauts:

.....

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

"Apollo returns, a Boeing story"

"Huston, we have a problem.... "

....ok we figured it out, now guys you'll have to build a few things. First thing, you'll have to go into the garbage disposal and using plastic bags please collect small bundles of poop. Mix the poop with hydrochloric acid and make them into hexagonal shapes 6" tall by 2" thick. Now we'll need one of you to get the flu... Go find a vial left by the ruzzians. Don't worry, we got the antidote down here. Okay next collect all the snot and mix it up with 10% gelatin. Finally, you'll have to go outside and patch the heat shield using the gelatine as glue....

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago

As it turns out, actually, WE are the ones who are stranded.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Space, the safest place from Boeing assassins.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

The one place uncorrupted by capitalism!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That is clearly a meaning of "not stranded" I was previously unfamiliar with.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

They're not. The ship has 1 bad thruster, but need like a dozen to fail to make re-entry impossible. They could leave right now and everything would be just fine.

The thing is the module that's malfunctioning doesn't survive re-entry, so the only time to investigate the problem is before they head back.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

will there be hunger games at the ISS if supplies run thin ?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Maybe space stations should have lifeboats. Ocean liners must have them, why not the ISS?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

They functionally do, at almost all points in time there are enough capsules docked to the station for all astronauts to be able to return to Earth. The starliner capsule is currently able to return if needed, they are having it stay up there a bit longer to check things out to better understand why the one thruster is bad.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

I hope they sue.....

Boeing: yes, they got no chance at all.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

If I were thw astronauts I'd refuse to take the starliner back down.