Starliner will return to Earth uncrewed, astronauts staying on ISS until February

https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/24/starliner-will-return-to-earth-uncrewed-astronauts-staying-on-iss-until-february/

Boeing’s Starliner mission is coming back to Earth — empty. After months of data analysis and internal deliberation, NASA leadership announced today that Starliner will be coming back to Earth in September, without a crew.

93 points · 7 comments · view on lemmy.world

7 Comments

Subtracty@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 1y (1 reply)

I can not imagine being one of the engineers that has to make big decisions like this. Glad they are being cautious, and I hope those astronauts are enjoying their unexpected space sabatical as much as that is possible.

BossDj@lemm.ee · 8 pts · 1y

This is the real deal. I'm so, so glad they're trying to be 100% safe rather than save face or money.

BossDj@lemm.ee · 11 pts · 1y

We got ourselves a Mark Watney situation here. Time to grow some shit potatoes

kippinitreal@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Is this common (extended stays in orbit) or is this another Boeing failure?

BrikoX@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Very uncommon. Original plan was less than 14 days, and now it got extended to 8-12 months. Though astronauts seems to be happy as they get to do some spacewalks while stuck at ISS. But it's bad news for Boeing. They had a fixed contract of 4.2 billion and had to pay additional 1.5 billion out of pocket and now their reputation is shot.

SupraMario@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y

It's going to be even worse, if this thing burns up on re-entry.

Mathazzar@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y

Boeing failure. They were supposed to return long ago.