patrick.net

The major airlines have been outsourcing maintenance to overseas or central/south American depots. The results are what you would expect. They have to do what would be routine maintenance twice - first done incompetently by the cheap foreign maintenance depots, then again once they get back to the US to correct major problems. Between the maintenance debacle, retiring/injured pilots due to the clot shot mandates, the airlines are a shitshow for anything other than the major high $$$ business routes. They are triaging pilots and maintenance to the most valuable routes.

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/its-complicated-friday-august-2-2024

Boeing, Boeing. Yesterday, ArsTechnica ran an embarrassing science story headlined, “NASA says it is ‘evaluating all options’ for the safe return of Starliner crew.” The sub-headline added, “SpaceX is actively working on a plan to fly Starliner's crew home.”

It has now been eight weeks since Boeing's Starliner spacecraft launched on an eight-day mission to the International Space Station. The problems started on the way up, when they landing gear fell off and the engine caught fire. Wait, that was a different Boeing aircraft.

Actually, while en route to the space station, Boeing reported some “really small” helium leaks and “relatively minor” thruster failures. Ever since then, Boeing and NASA have offered one “minor” and “pretty small” excuse after another, and reported on one exciting test or repair that never went anywhere.

Nobody seems to know exactly what the problem is. It’s complicated! Meanwhile, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have literally been hanging in limbo, eating liquified tube protein, and going to the bathroom in something that looks like the business end of a vacuum cleaner.

NASA and Boeing have repeatedly denied the astronauts are “stuck” on the Space Station, or anywhere for that matter, and keep saying the astronauts are just working remotely, in space. They have described the deferred return decisions as being solely related to an abundance of caution. You can’t be too careful.

Elon has really been having a moment lately. ArsTechnica’s article yesterday reported rumors that Elon Musk’s SpaceX team in Florida is hurriedly working on a project to rescue the definitely-not-stranded astronauts in one of its own Dragon spaceships, a development that would further humiliate Boeing and smother its shuttling contract along with its new Starliner series.

NASA, taking cues on transparency from the FBI and the CDC, refused to confirm whether or not it asked SpaceX to come to the rescue, saying only that it was “evaluating all options.”

Just like the Secret Service trying to hide it's incompetence. Wait! Some on here won't accept that and soon we'll start hearing wild conspiracies as to why the astronauts are stuck up there.

Already stating for the record that my fav will be the ones involving aliens.

Astronauts Remain Stranded in Space

BRING THEM HOME: Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s Families Speak up as the
Astronauts Remain Stranded in Space... Just imagine that one of your beloved family
members sets out in a trip supposed to last around 8 days but it turns out it may end up
lasting as much as eight MONTHS.

It’s hard to imagine that someone would react in a very stoic way about it - especially
if the unimaginable delay is caused by the by now legendary Boeing technical troubles.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/bring-them-home-suni-williams-butch-wilmores-families/

Starliner is the only US option besides SpaceX for crewed flights to the ISS. We have to keep them afloat in case Option 1 somehow fails.

The_Deplorable says

Astronauts Remain Stranded in Space

BRING THEM HOME: Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s Families Speak up as the
Astronauts Remain Stranded in Space... Just imagine that one of your beloved family
members sets out in a trip supposed to last around 8 days but it turns out it may end up
lasting as much as eight MONTHS.

It’s hard to imagine that someone would react in a very stoic way about it - especially
if the unimaginable delay is caused by the by now legendary Boeing technical troubles.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/bring-them-home-suni-williams-butch-wilmores-families/

If they try to bring them home and it does another Challenger, all hell would break loose.

Can you imagine drunk Kamala taking tough questions about this?

Because unlike Challenger, they knew this crappy, EULA-bailout-of-a-DEI re-entry vehicle was fucked up AND they told the entire world exactly how.

In fact, NASA bureaucrats publicly outing Boeing on this no matter how many crooked congresscritters they pissed off was probably the smartest move NASA has made in a long time. Because if they didn't, they would have been pressured to go ahead and try to land them.

This means, NASA’s Artemis-2 2024 program to land on moon will get postponed.

Blue says

This means, NASA’s Artemis-2 2024 program to land on moon will get postponed.

It already has.

So...uhhh...how many pairs of underwear did the astronauts bring with them ???

Misc says

So...uhhh...how many pairs of underwear did the astronauts bring with them ???

They had to leave most of their clothes behind.

Naked & [Boeing] Afraid in Space!

BREAKING: NASA announces Boeing Starliner astronauts to return to Earth on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

Due to the high risk of thruster failure on the Boeing Starliner, NASA cannot risk putting astronauts in it for the return trip to earth.

Boeing was paid $4.2 billion and has failed on two different test flights to achieve mission objectives.

SpaceX was paid $2.6 billion for Dragon Crew and reached space in 2020 and has delivered numerous missions with cargo and 49 astronauts to the Space Station.

https://x.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1827397310055166170

Cancel.
The.
Contract.

AmericanKulak says

Cancel.
The.
Contract.

Boeing needs to focus on airplanes. I get there's money in space, but you can't do both. That's why Musk has said while he has interest in aviation, he has no intention of getting into it.

And yes, cars and rockets are two different animals. 99% of what Tesla puts in a car was already available. He just put a battery in it. Golf carts have been around forever, so it's not new tech. Rocket technology has been around forever as well. Very much a Steve Jobs and Bill Gates type.

It's a huge undertaking to build a plane that flies 1,000 times daily and safely. Way more than a car. I don't think it's smart to do planes AND space travel. Boeing needs to pick their pony and get back to excelling at planes. Government doesn't help though dangling the corruption carrot in front of the pony with grants.

The ISS is actually kinda screwed now, since the Shitliner is taking up dockspace, and nobody knows if it's software or thrusters can successfully detach it and kick it back down with any reasonable chance of success.

So the ISS lost a docking port for who knows how long

AmericanKulak says

The ISS is actually kinda screwed now, since the Shitliner is taking up dockspace, and nobody knows if it's software or thrusters can successfully detach it and kick it back down with any reasonable chance of success.

I have defended Boeing in the past. They shouldn't be in space in my opinion. But, is the docking part 100% on Boeing? I admittedly have not read too much into this specific story. I'm fine with launching satellites into orbit, but I think the space station is a waste of time at this point. Maybe it's time to just let it go. Have they not had a couple decades to study? It's low earth orbit anyway. There can't be anything else to discover unless we're sending idiots up there.

Yep, Boeing outsourced the procedure for Shitliner's undocking. Seems the Indians require there to be someone onboard as there is no remote way to have it disengaged from the station.

Lost In Space...

"When astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore left Earth for International Space Station nearly three months ago, they ditched their bags for a key piece of equipment. Helming the inaugural crewed flight test of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, they departed without their own toiletries and other personal comforts - expecting to return to Earth within a week or so.

They’ve now been on the space station more than 11 weeks, however, and NASA announced Saturday that they would remain there through early 2025."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/boeing-starliner-astronauts-now-space-103217983.html

WookieMan says

They shouldn't be in space

Nobody should be in space. Missions can be performed more cheaply and more safely with robots.

WookieMan says

It's a huge undertaking to build a plane that flies 1,000 times daily and safely. Way more than a car. I don't think it's smart to do planes AND space travel. Boeing needs to pick their pony and get back to excelling at planes. Government doesn't help though dangling the corruption carrot in front of the pony with grants.

This is how everything will get killed. Government + $$ + Greed.

We don't follow the science. No, we follow the $$.

Boeing employees ‘humiliated’ that upstart rival SpaceX will rescue astronauts stuck in space: ‘It’s shameful’

https://nypost.com/2024/08/25/us-news/boeing-employees-humiliated-that-spacex-will-save-astronauts-stuck-in-space/

WookieMan says

I have defended Boeing in the past. They shouldn't be in space in my opinion. But, is the docking part 100% on Boeing? I admittedly have not read too much into this specific story. I'm fine with launching satellites into orbit, but I think the space station is a waste of time at this point. Maybe it's time to just let it go. Have they not had a couple decades to study? It's low earth orbit anyway. There can't be anything else to discover unless we're sending idiots up there.

Two problems:

1: Because the Shitliners software was written in Mumbai and is full of errors (same reason a previous Shitliner test launch failed to reach orbit), and there's a thruster issue, they may not be able to 'drive it out of the parking lot'. And you can't put somebody on board to fly it manually or they'll stand a chance of dying to save a MIC Boondoggle.

2. The problem with the Space Station is they never have ENOUGH people onboard to do any serious R&D. It takes 3-4 F/T people to maintain the thing in space. There needs to be at least 6-7 people on it F/T to get anything done.

2b. The #1 thing we should be doing in LEO with the space station is testing Artificial Gravity and Engineering to support it. For every tenth of a G, it's believed a lot of long term physical issues are mitigated. Getting this done is key to any kind of Mars or long term Moon mission.

2c. The #2 and #3 reasons is to produce hydroponic food in quantity and deal with mold issues. The ISS (and all long term LEO occupied vehicles) stinks to high heaven from it.

A satellite made by Boeing just fell apart in space... A communications satellite built
by Boeing has fallen apart while in orbit... On Saturday, Intelsat said its 33e satellite
stopped working due to an "anomaly" before confirming its "total loss" on Monday.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/22/24277073/intelsat-33e-boeing-satellite-fell-apart-space

This is what happens when you build satellites and airplanes with parts that do not meet
specs. In 2022 the 737-800 in Flight MU5735 in China was shedding parts one minute before
the nose dive.

"Evidence suggests China Eastern flight started falling apart midair..."
https://fortune.com/2022/03/25/evidence-midair-breakup-china-eastern-flight-guangxi/

Boeing is changing their name to 'Boeing-Netflix', "where DEI fantasy meets engineering reality" or "We go woke and go boom".