ASAP’s Brent Jett: sense of panel that further commercial crew schedule slips are likely. If both companies able to at least do uncrewed test flights this year, that would be a good outcome.
Officially, the milestone [Boeing uncrewed Orbital Test Flight] remains on NASA’s calendar for August, but the flight more likely is six months away....“I think we’re going to get the unmanned demo flights probably by the end of the year, maybe a little after that . . . and then the crew demo missions next year. Those are really going to dictate how the rest of that manifest goes,” says Suni Williams, one of four NASA astronauts serving as test subjects and sounding boards for the Boeing and SpaceX development, test and operations teams....
The unmanned and crewed test flights are intended to pave the way for NASA certification of the systems for ISS crew-rotation missions licensed by the FAA, which oversees commercial U.S. spaceflight. “By doing the FAA licensing for crewed missions, we’ve established the beginning of this government-commercial framework for these providers to eventually have licensed missions on their own, independent of NASA capabilities,” says CCP Manager Kathy Lueders.
“I think NASA wanted people who had experience with loss of a space shuttle as a part of the initial crew cadre,” says astronaut Bob Behnken, who is assigned to the CCP program along with colleagues Williams, Eric Boe and Doug Hurley. Behnken and Hurley were waiting for Columbia on the KSC runway on Feb. 1, 2003, when the shuttle broke apart [...] “When we travel to Florida with a team, we look for opportunities to get them into the Columbia room so they can be exposed to what that brings to your psyche,” he [Behnken] adds, referring to a room on the 16th floor of KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building where debris from the accident has been preserved.
http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronaut-suni-williams-on-spacex-boeing-spaceships-2018-6According to this article with Suni Williams, the uncrewed flights will be September for SpaceX and October for Boeing. The crewed flights will be December 31st for Boeing and January 17th for SpaceX.Rather specific dates for the crewed flights. Looking forward to the Happy New Year!
Quote from: getitdoneinspace on 06/24/2018 10:48 pmhttp://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronaut-suni-williams-on-spacex-boeing-spaceships-2018-6According to this article with Suni Williams, the uncrewed flights will be September for SpaceX and October for Boeing. The crewed flights will be December 31st for Boeing and January 17th for SpaceX.Rather specific dates for the crewed flights. Looking forward to the Happy New Year!Those dates are extremely unlikely to happen. The article mentions the crewed demo dates possibly slipping to mid-2019, and that is probably what is going to happen.
NASA planning revisions to commercial crew test flight scheduleby Jeff Foust — June 28, 2018RENTON, Wash. — With official dates for commercial crew test flights looming, NASA officials have indicated a revised schedule, taking into account the status of vehicle development as well as International Space Station activities, will soon be released.At a June 28 briefing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center regarding the scheduled June 29 launch of a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, Kirk Shireman, NASA ISS program manager, said the agency was “close” to setting new date for uncrewed and crewed test flights by Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The author of that article actually contacted me asking me where I got the commercial crew dates from in my US Commercial manifest athttp://www.sworld.com.au/steven/space/uscom-man.txtI gave a link to my usual sources and NSF, and specifically mentioned this thread. :-)
Quote from: woods170 on 05/02/2018 12:04 pmI have the impression that the bigger amount of money available to Boeing ($ 4.2B versus $ 2.6B for SpaceX) is one of the reasons why Boeing slips less than SpaceX.I wonder how much BFR plays in as well. With Dragon 2, SpaceX's internal goals and NASA's goals are no longer in alignment. So, the extra oomph to get things done a bit quicker may not be there. Not to mention that some of SpaceX's top talent has probably moved over to BFR already if they are as far along was they seem to indicate.
I have the impression that the bigger amount of money available to Boeing ($ 4.2B versus $ 2.6B for SpaceX) is one of the reasons why Boeing slips less than SpaceX.
Quote from: rockets4life97 on 05/02/2018 12:34 pmQuote from: woods170 on 05/02/2018 12:04 pmI have the impression that the bigger amount of money available to Boeing ($ 4.2B versus $ 2.6B for SpaceX) is one of the reasons why Boeing slips less than SpaceX.I wonder how much BFR plays in as well. With Dragon 2, SpaceX's internal goals and NASA's goals are no longer in alignment. So, the extra oomph to get things done a bit quicker may not be there. Not to mention that some of SpaceX's top talent has probably moved over to BFR already if they are as far along was they seem to indicate.If that is the case, I will be highly disappointed in SpaceX. Why would you take your best talent off human spaceflight that you already have scheduled? I've always felt SpaceX viewed human spaceflight as easier than it really is, but I'd be shocked they don't have their aces working in it.
I've always felt SpaceX viewed human spaceflight as easier than it really is, but I'd be shocked they don't have their aces working in it.
Quote from: Khadgars on 07/09/2018 05:17 pmQuote from: rockets4life97 on 05/02/2018 12:34 pm...If that is the case, I will be highly disappointed in SpaceX. Why would you take your best talent off human spaceflight that you already have scheduled? I've always felt SpaceX viewed human spaceflight as easier than it really is, but I'd be shocked they don't have their aces working in it.The programs are in different phases, the top design talent and the top I&T talent are probably different people. Plenty of people who worked Dragon probably have little to continue to contribute to that program.
Quote from: rockets4life97 on 05/02/2018 12:34 pm...If that is the case, I will be highly disappointed in SpaceX. Why would you take your best talent off human spaceflight that you already have scheduled? I've always felt SpaceX viewed human spaceflight as easier than it really is, but I'd be shocked they don't have their aces working in it.
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Cargo and Crew Dragon are not all that alike. There are identical elements, but more differences with a lot of changes. Musk's focus on vertical integration means they have to develop a lot of new elements in house, which makes everything more complicated and time consuming and problem plagued. Boeing's approach is not to reinvent the wheel. It has uses a lot of subcontractors and a lot of proven tech. The challenge is integrating all these disparate elements.Even though the first Crew Dragon has come out of vacuum testing, there's a chance Boeing will fly first.
New GAO report says neither commercial crew system likely to be certified before late 2019/early 2020. https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/693035.pdf … Says NASA has not "fully shared" w/Congress risks of future delays and doesn't have contingency plan in place to ensure "uninterrupted presence" on ISS
nobody knows where these contractors stand in regard to completion.