Stranded astronauts' capsule heads home without them
60 points by EwanToo 10 months ago | 59 comments- tgsovlerkhgsel 10 months agoI'm wondering whether the astronauts in this situation are excited about getting an extended stay in space without the usual competition for launch opportunities, or are unhappy about it (due to the long separation from family, health effects, the lack of comfort that comes with living on the frontier of what humanity can currently reach, etc.).
This quote:
> “They understand the importance now of moving on and... getting the vehicle back safely.”
makes me think they aren't too happy about this outcome.
- KyleBerezin 10 months agoI can assure you Butch and Sunny are very happy about getting to spend more time in space. This is also likely their last visit to the ISS. They are both around 60. Older astronauts have gone to the ISS, but if I had to guess they are both probably on their last mission.
- peeters 10 months agoIf I had to guess, the thing they would dislike the most about the situation is that two previously assigned astronauts scheduled to fly are getting bumped from their mission so that Crew Dragon can fly with two empty seats.
- TMWNN 10 months agoThe others blithely assuring you that Wilmore and Williams are happy to have more time in space are wrong.
Yes, flying in space is cool. No, most people don't want to do this indefinitely. Astronauts retire all the time even when they are 100% guaranteed more flight time if they didn't retire; a whole bunch did that in the 1960s and 1970s (some, like Frank Borman, 100% guaranteed to walk on the moon), and more during the shuttle era.
It's one thing to have a mission extended by a day, as happened to the shuttle routinely because of bad weather at the landing site. Skylab 4's mission I believe got extended by 28 days, but that was a known possibility before launch. To have an eight-day mission be extended to *eight months* is in no way shape or form OK.
Wilmore is going to miss his 30th wedding anniversary and other family events. <https://www.wvlt.tv/2024/08/09/family-reacts-tennessee-astro...> To those who think otherwise, do you really think he is thrilled by that? Really?
- __m 10 months agoThey literally risk their life to go to space, I’m sure they‘ll be fine with it.
- __m 10 months ago
- rjh29 10 months agoLast time I read about this, the astronauts absolutely love being in space and will be happy about it. Heck even I would be happy, this is a one in a million experience!
- ekianjo 10 months agorather one in a billion experience :-) at least for now
- ekianjo 10 months ago
- rkagerer 10 months agoTheir assignment was to complete a test flight. They're probably disappointed they won't get to finish the job.
As astronauts I can't imagine they're too upset over the prospect of more time in space. I'm sure the timing inconveniences medium-term plans they had, and is a pain in the a* from that perspective, but in their line of work you know how to expect the unexpected and roll with new circumstances. I'm sure their loved ones are glad their safety is being considered foremost.
- TMWNN 10 months ago> Their assignment was to complete a test flight. They're probably disappointed they won't get to finish the job.
The Starliner crew had to go manual while approaching ISS because the autonomous docking software couldn't handle the five failed thrusters.
Watch the crew entering ISS. Williams is very, very, very happy to have survived the ascent. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsURePrNTx0>
- TMWNN 10 months ago
- bravetraveler 10 months agoStuff like this is so politically loaded it's hard to say. Defending from at least 12 different angles!
Were it me, I'd be conflicted for the obvious reasons. Yay, more time in space. Can do the rare part. Oh no, more time in space - danger.
I'm not an astronaut though - they've been selected for certain behavior
- throwup238 10 months ago> Oh no, more time in space - danger.
Has anyone ever died in space (as in above the von Karman line)? The danger is on launch and reentry, which is the risk this delay is trying to mitigate.
Even the worst space accident (Apollo 13) ended up returning safely.
- meatmanek 10 months agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_11
The mission ended in disaster when the crew capsule depressurised during preparations for re-entry, killing the three-person crew.[9] The three crew members of Soyuz 11 are the only humans to have died in space.[b][10]
- bravetraveler 10 months agoYea, that's a fair point - not many. It's more of a "monkey brain" response than anything. In orbit you're high off the ground but not really falling... at it, you know?
edit: I may trust the vessel but state changes are where the devil works
- pigeons 10 months agoThere is also the danger of having a shorter lifespan because of the damage and stress on the body that the extended time in space brings.
- verzali 10 months agoWell no, but space is dangerous. Reentry and launch may be more dangerous, but we still go to enormous efforts to keep astronauts in space safe.
- meatmanek 10 months ago
- throwup238 10 months ago
- KyleBerezin 10 months ago
- Animats 10 months agoLanding video live stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ0T-cZWh78
- Animats 10 months agoLanded OK.
- hinkley 10 months agoNo boom?
I wonder how long before they can diagnose what happened.
- Animats 10 months agoIt landed passively, by parachute.
It did land where it was supposed to, on a designated landing site in the desert, so the re-entry guidance system did its job. This is an improvement over water landings.
- 9 months ago
- Animats 10 months ago
- hinkley 10 months ago
- Animats 10 months ago
- rich_sasha 10 months agoI'd love to see the full calculus of risk and reward. Space travel is inherently dangerous, so NASA has to be really concerned.
Equally, until Dragon arrives, they have to means of escape, if there's either issues with the station or with their health.
NASA mist have concluded that the latter is a smaller risk than the Starliner, which I guess says something about how high they though the danger is.
- Razengan 10 months agoWow, imagine seeing this news but about Mars or the moon…
- downrightmike 10 months agoBoeing is never going to either
- fy20 10 months agoMaybe in a few hundred years a space company will buy the Boeing name and relaunch it, like what car companies are doing, for nostalgia purposes.
- ahazred8ta 10 months agoThe East India Company came back in 2010
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjiv_Mehta_(British_busine...
- ahazred8ta 10 months ago
- fy20 10 months ago
- downrightmike 10 months ago
- ravjo 10 months agoTo add some context: the astronauts are not "stranded" in space. They are in the international space station. They were supposed to get back on this capsule after a few days stay, but they are now expected to stay in the ISS and get back only in February on SpaceX capsule/vehicle.
- creativeSlumber 10 months agoThat is the definition of being stranded. They wouldn't have stayed back if they could have gone with the vehicle.
- thegrim33 10 months agoNobody is stranded. At no time does NASA not have a plan to evacuate the space station if there's an emergency. There's currently 7 people aboard and 5 space craft docked, all of which can carry multiple people, all of which can be used to get people off the station.
- AmericanChopper 10 months agoYou’re describing a plan for how to deal with stranded astronauts. If I’m on a road trip and my car breaks down at a gas station, I’m stranded. Even if there are other people and other cars at the gas station, and even if I still have access to emergency services, and even if I have a plan for how to deal with being stranded at a gas station.
- 6nf 10 months agoThere's 9 people on board the ISS right now. The Dragon can take 4. The Suyoz can take 3. The other capsules are not designed for crew.
- ed_mercer 10 months agoIn an emergency, can they really prep and launch a rocket quickly? Are we talking hours/days/week/months?
- AmericanChopper 10 months ago
- thegrim33 10 months ago
- jmyeet 10 months agoThat's not context. It's apologia and Boeing propaganda. An 8 day mission turning into a 6 month mission that can only end because a completely different company brings them home is the definition of "stranded".
That's like saying that after 9/11 when all flights were grounded and you, as a New Yorker, weren't "stranded" in London because, hey, you could always row a boat back. It's such a weird and meaningless semantic defense.
Why are you defending Boeing here?
- ravjo 10 months agoHad zero intentions of defending Boeing (or anyone else) here. I made a mistake about the meaning of “stranded” in my comment. What I should have said is “they are not stranded in space like how the two main characters in the film ‘Gravity’ were stranded”. Mistake made, lessons learnt. Apologies.
- ravjo 10 months ago
- Vecr 10 months agoWhat's their designated lifeboat now that the Boeing is gone?
- ravjo 10 months agoAs per the article, the SpaceX vehicle due for launch later this month will only carry two of the four astronauts originally planned. The two empty seats will be used by the two delayed-return astronauts when the vehicle returns in February.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 10 months agoThat's the intended return vehicle, but "lifeboat" refers to how they will get home if they suddenly need to leave the station due to an emergency now (before the SpaceX vehicle launches).
The answer is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41470523
- tgsovlerkhgsel 10 months ago
- wmf 10 months agoAFAIK Crew Dragon Endeavour has been retrofitted with six seats and could (suboptimally?) evacuate the six astronauts on the ISS.
- nkoren 10 months ago"Seats" is a bit generous. They'd be strapped to the cargo palettes behind the seats, without flight suits. Definitely sub-optimal.
- nkoren 10 months ago
- ravjo 10 months ago
- mrjin 10 months agoDefine stranded please?
- givinguflac 10 months ago
- lupusreal 10 months ago[flagged]
- KyleBerezin 10 months agoStranded: Left without the means to move from somewhere.
If you are stranded on an island, it implies you have no means of return. They have a means, to return on the same capsule. They also could return on another capsule. NASA decided to not take the risk, as there are other less risky options available.
If there were no other options, NASA would send the back on Starliner, and it would still likely be much safer than something like the space shuttle
- lupusreal 10 months agoNobody plays these semantic games with the word stranded in any context other than Starliner. If somebody's car breaks down they can fairly claim they were stranded even though they could call an uber or even hitchhike and nobody pisses and moans about them not truly being stranded according to some dictionary definition of the word. Boeing has made you their PR bitch.
- lupusreal 10 months ago
- wannacboatmovie 10 months ago> Seriously, nobody does this.
Sorry to hear your privileged existence never had to rent a car last minute and drive 13 hours, Steve Martin and John Candy style. Because I certainly have.
- jychang 10 months agoYou didn’t parse his comment correctly. He didn’t say nobody does that action, he’s saying nobody calls that action “not being stranded”.
- jychang 10 months ago
- KyleBerezin 10 months ago
- creativeSlumber 10 months ago