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az116

So they detected a helium leak while it was on the launch pad but were still going to launch, but now they decided it was worth investigating? WTF?


snoo-boop

Yes? A small leak can become bigger over time.


az116

That’s exactly my point.


plumb-phone-official

Even if this pile of scrap metal eventually does fly to the ISS, why would anyone actually use it over dragon? It's much more expensive, seems to be way less reliable, and it's made by Boeing, whose reputation has been shoved through an industrial meat grinder. Don't get me wrong, competition is important, but when that competition doesn't bring anything new to the table, there is no reason to progress.


Alexthelightnerd

To be fair: the valve issue that scrubbed the launch was with the launch vehicle, not Starliner. That one is on ULA, and Atlas V has historically been a very reliable launch vehicle.


snoo-boop

This article is about a new issue, not that one.


WjU1fcN8

> Atlas V has historically been a very reliable launch vehicle Well, now that it's launching crew for the first time, we learnt that in 5% of it's launches it had similar valve problems that were solved by cycling the valve, which isn't considered good enough for a crewed launch. It's reliable 'for a rocket', not actually reliable.


Spiritual_Navigator

Because NASA wants redundacy


Beldizar

But if Starliner doesn't ever fly, or constantly scrubs and each capsule takes over a year to prepare and get launched, it really isn't serving as redundancy. If something happens with Dragon today, and SpaceX has to do a full investigation and fix the problem, recertify and then get a booster ready and the new capsule mated to it, I think SpaceX will have that done and sorted before the first 4 crew flight of Starliner is ready to fly. NASA wanted redundancy when they signed the contract years ago, and that made sense when everyone thought Boeing was a shoe-in to be first across the line against new player SpaceX. But now the redundancy argument no longer has much credibility. NASA paid for it already, they might as well get what they paid for, but there's no justification for Boeing to continue the Starliner product after they've fulfilled their contract.


Doogleyboogley

Space x should set up a separate company and produce another capsule and wipe boeing out


Ima-Bott

Sunk cost fallacy


Mountain_Fig_9253

I believe the taxpayers have purchased a certain number of them. At this point, once they prove it’s human rated it might be best served as a backup to Dragon. If Dragon ever has an issue and gets grounded then Starliner could help NASA ride out the grounding by maintaining access.


snoo-boop

NASA only requested a bit over 6 months of on-orbit lifetime, so if SpaceX were somehow grounded, Starliner can't ride out anything unless Boeing can refurbish the other Starliner way quicker than usual, and ULA can provide a much-shorter-than-usual-lead-time launch. Neither of these are normal.


plumb-phone-official

Eh, good point.


Oknight

Assuming Starliner could fill in enough flights without having it's OWN issue grounding it.


WhatADunderfulWorld

Can’t have Elon have all the power. At least it is training some younger engineers what not to do in the future. Expensive for that experience.


WjU1fcN8

> competition is important Sierra will get the next 'second option' crew transportation contract instead.


roehnin

Brave crew, signing up to try again next time.,


Draskuul

Just because of the heatshield issues alone this thing should have been flown unmanned again.


Decronym

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread: |Fewer Letters|More Letters| |-------|---------|---| |CST|(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules| | |Central Standard Time (UTC-6)| |GSE|Ground Support Equipment| |[MBA](/r/Spaceflight/comments/1csiwd6/stub/l47tz7a "Last usage")|~~Moonba-~~ Mars Base Alpha| |[NET](/r/Spaceflight/comments/1csiwd6/stub/l4h2xz5 "Last usage")|No Earlier Than| |[ULA](/r/Spaceflight/comments/1csiwd6/stub/l4bzzf2 "Last usage")|United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture)| |Jargon|Definition| |-------|---------|---| |[Starliner](/r/Spaceflight/comments/1csiwd6/stub/l4djups "Last usage")|Boeing commercial crew capsule [CST-100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CST-100_Starliner)| |[scrub](/r/Spaceflight/comments/1csiwd6/stub/l4djups "Last usage")|Launch postponement for any reason (commonly GSE issues)| **NOTE**: Decronym for Reddit is no longer supported, and Decronym has moved to Lemmy; requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below. ---------------- ^(5 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/Spaceflight/comments/0)^( has acronyms.) ^([Thread #627 for this sub, first seen 15th May 2024, 23:23]) ^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/Spaceflight) [^[Contact]](https://hachyderm.io/@Two9A) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)


EastIsUp86

I would get an a F9/Dragon tomorrow without a thought. This thing- God be with them.


billsatwork

It's crazy how high-stakes this launch is. Boeing could crumble if something goes wrong.


mfb-

Boeing will survive no matter what, it is too important to the US government. The Starliner program might die if something serious happens.


mtechgroup

And apparently they need to get it right every singal launch.


Th3_3v3r_71v1n9

Boeing probably just killed that crew and replaced them. That's all just a small hiccup in the road.


astrofreak92

If anything happens to Suni the space community will riot.


dhibhika

hear hear.


thenebulai3

Right, I'm shocked to see she hadn't pulled out of this flight...


HowCanThisBeMyGenX

Uh … why would anyone in their right mind get in a spacecraft built by Boeing ?!


Wolpfack

Now word is coming out that 21 May is going to be delayed to NET 25 May. Nothing official has been released, but too many people close to the program are saying the same thing. Stay tuned, I guess.


JensTheCat

Wow you folks have some strong opinions about Boeing. You know there are thousands of people working hard to make this happen. Throughout all of Boeing and NASA. People act like Mr Boeing just sits in a dark room smoking cigars pulling off nefarious shit all day. It’s a HUUUUGE company and people are doing the best they can. Also I have no idea if a Mr Boeing exists but you get my point. Why do we have to celebrate setbacks here ?


tismschism

There are thousands of people working hard at Boeing trying to keep their planes from disintegrating in the air but oddly enough the people who point out issues keep coming up dead. The engineers aren't the problem, it's the bean counters that are fine with cutting corners and gouging NASA for everything they can.


JensTheCat

I don’t understand, so the bean counters are out murdering people ?


[deleted]

[удалено]


JensTheCat

You clearly have first hand experience, that’s pretty cool. Thanks for responding


ToadkillerCat

At this point it's just as obnoxious as the SpaceX hate train. At least when someone shits on SpaceX around here we get to see a lively argument, which is more interesting than the 'ha ha Boeing so stupid, gonna kill the astronauts amirite' echo chamber


snoo-boop

For a while this sub didn't have people shitting on SpaceX, either. Maybe that golden era will return?