Jeff Foust has the latest at The Space Review.
An idle thought: If Boeing bails, is it possible that some other entity could pick up where it left off with Starliner and make money?
Category Archives: Technology and Society
More On Israel And Space
I just ran across this interview from a month or so ago, in which my name is liberally taken in vain.
Nostr
Is this the future of the Internet? I’ll have to check it out.
Kursk
Laughing Wolf has thoughts.
And yes, the historical irony is immense.
Putin’s Embarrassment
What the hell is going on in Kursk?
I’m guessing that part of the idea was to force the Russians to redeploy troops away from the lines in Ukraine.
Boeing And SLS
The fiasco continues.
But hey, let’s keep giving them billions of taxpayer dollars for a launch system that is behind schedule and that no one needs except Boeing and its pet Congresspeople.
[Update a few minutes later]
More from Eric Berger.
[Update a while later]
This seems relevant: Our crisis of institutional incompetence. Fortunately, SpaceX doesn’t suffer from this. Yet.
[Update mid morning]
Thoughts on Boeing and the defense implications from Jared Isaacman.
Some additional context: the headlines of stranded astronauts are unfair and misleading, but not necessarily clickbait, as I think the public has a genuine interest in the situation. My comments on Starliner are based entirely on what is in the public domain and has been… https://t.co/KDPd7yjMJS
— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) August 10, 2024
And yes, it is probably the most consequential safety decision NASA has made since Columbia.
[Late-morning update]
Has NASA’s safety culture changed since Columbia?
[Afternoon update]
The fall of Boeing is complete.
Oh, I don’t know. I think that they still have some room below.
The Second Space Race
A review of Greg Autry’s and Peter Navarro’s new book on China. Greg gave me a copy last Saturday at an event in downtown LA, but I haven’t read it yet.
[Update a while later]
“The book serves as both a wake-up call and a reminder of the importance of space exploration.”
I hate that phrase. It’s the importance of space development. Exploration is just a means to that end.
Memory Problems With Age
…are linked to a key enzyme.
Faster, please.
Elon Evangelizes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 10, 2024
Safe Is Not An Option
Thoughts on flight rationale from Wayne Hale.
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, now I see why Wayne wrote that:
As NASA is working to balance all of these risks—the risk to crew on board Starliner, the risk of an uncrewed departure to the ISS, the risk to astronauts on board the space station, and more — Boeing has been lobbying to bring Starliner home with crew. Although NASA and Boeing engineers have yet to identify a root cause for the failure of the thrusters, Boeing has been urging NASA to accept “flight rationale” as a substitute. That is, Boeing believes it has provided enough data to NASA to be confident the thrusters will not fail in a catastrophic manner.
Boeing seems willing to risk the lives of the astronauts to save the vehicle. I don’t personally think it’s worth saving. I wonder what Boeing’s new CEO thinks?