Boeing's Starliner Lands Successfully, but Without Its Astronauts on Board
www.smithsonianmag.com
The troubled spacecraft conducted a “bull's-eye landing,” but NASA officials still say they made the right decision to leave its astronauts on the ISS out of an abundance of caution
  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    14·
    2 months ago

    What was supposed to be an eight-day stay at the ISS for the astronauts has now turned into eight months.

    I mean, that’s probably physically rough on you, but speaking from the standpoint of “only ~116 people have ever been able to be present on this station”, that “this is probably something that they had to work towards for some time to get”, and “the ISS is nearing end-of-life and any replacement has risks associated with it and will be a smaller structure”, I don’t know that eight months on the ISS is the worst thing that could happen to someone.

    • Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world
      6·
      2 months ago

      I don’t expect you to have the answers, but is the ISS nearing end of life because of technology, or because of gravitational pull? If it’s the latter, how feasible would it be to attach rockets and drag it further away?

    • mkwt@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 months ago

      Both of these astronauts were multiple-mission space veterans before they left. They have space shuttle experience. Sunita has prior command experience on ISS. These two are basically the most veteran professionals that NASA has on the roster.

      They have now been resupplied with clothing on a Progress module. I think it was like 45 days before that showed up.

      They have both stated that they’re happy for more time on orbit, and I’m mostly inclined to believe them.

  • CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world
    8·
    2 months ago

    Alternative headline: “Boeing uses autopilot to return company vehicle while leaving two employees trapped indefinitely.”