this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2024
189 points (94.4% liked)

News

23622 readers
2807 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Originally set to return in mid-June, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams may be on the station until February, 2025.

During a press conference today, NASA representatives confirmed they have a contingency plan to bring astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams home from the International Space Station (ISS) early next year. If they’re unable to leave sooner aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that brought them there

Tests conducted at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility pointed to deformed Teflon seals being a potential cause of the Starliner’s thrusters failing, but the agency isn’t expected to make a final decision on whether or not Williams and Wilmore will return using Boeing’s spacecraft until mid-August.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 26 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The industry gossip/theory going around is that there’s a software issue in Starliner that makes it incapable of autonomously returning to Earth. This is probably NASA’s way of telling Boeing to fix it to a satisfactory degree of confidence before a given deadline, or else.

Arguably that alone is enough reason to completely abandon Starliner as an option for the return trip.

[–] Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's only an issue in that the logic isn't currently turned on. The capsule can do it just fine. It just wasn't the point of this mission.

NASA update earlier today said Boeing can turn the ability on if needed. Will just need time for update and then testing to make sure it's all good to go.

[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It takes no fewer than 4 weeks (!!!) to “turn the logic on”. The software that is currently loaded on Starliner cannot autonomously return - they will have to reflash the entire system.

[–] Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Here is more specific explanation from yesterday at the time stamp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLNeIx7AwVE&t=12m18s

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It seems like there is disagreement within NASA whether it is safe for the astronauts to return on Starliner or not.

Boeing engineers did test on the ground to try to replicate the issue that is occuring on the thrusters. They found thqt the issue isndue to a Teflon seals bulging but they don't understand precisely why is the seal buldging and when it occurs.

However they feel confident enough that the problem would not happen on the way back to earth. Some people are NASA are not as confident as they are and would like to know the precise cause of the bulging.

About the software: there is a capability in the software for the capsule to undock autonomously.

However it would means resurrecting parameters that have not been used and updated since 2022, there is some reconfiguration needed and testing to make sure it still does what is needed despite the different hardware and software change that happened since then.

It is really not looking good for Boeing right now and I don't know if the Starliner program will survive this accident.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/nasa-official-acknowledges-internal-disagreement-on-safety-of-starliner-return/2/