“I have to assume that Boeing’s leadership regrets even getting into this game.”
Collision calculation
As NASA works to find a way to bring the Boeing Starliner astronauts home, experts fear the plane will crash directly into the International Space Station.
As Business Insider As he notes, there are concerns inside and outside the agency that the damaged spacecraft could spin out of control after undocking from the ISS due to an engine malfunction and eventually crash into the station.
First brought into discussion by sources familiar with Ars-Technica about the issue on condition of anonymity last week, this apparent worst-case scenario was not completely dismissed by a NASA spokesman, who BI spoke, who did not want to comment on the issue.
We have also asked the agency whether these concerns are being discussed internally and have not yet received a response.
In an interview with BIThe famous Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell explained how such a fiasco could happen.
“If you undock from the ISS and lose more than a certain number of your engines,” he explained, “there is a chance that you will get stuck and/or even collide with the space station.”
Boeing Blues
Although the agency did not comment on this specific matter, the spokesman said BI with whom NASA has been in contact has announced its latest update on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, whose release has been pushed back from August 18 to September 24 at the earliest as NASA continues to grapple with issues with the Starliner.
While the suspension of Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the space station may be extended until 2025, NASA’s regulator has released a scathing report on the Space Launch System, which Boeing other The agency commission ultimately cost $700 million more than planned.
As McDowell said BIThis whole debacle shows dissatisfaction on both sides.
“I have to assume that Boeing’s leadership regrets getting into this game in the first place,” he said. “This particular program has been a financial disaster and a public relations disaster for them.”
With so much going wrong at Boeing here on the mainland, there is no doubt that the nightmarish Starliner saga and the SLS debacle are causing a stir internally at the company.
Worse still, once the SLS is finished, McDowell predicted, “it’s unlikely to fly that often.”
But seriously, how much bad press can a company handle?
More about the problems with the Starliner: NASA clown car plan calls for cramming extra astronauts into SpaceX capsules to avoid return trip in disastrous Boeing Starliner
