Should we be getting close to official crew assignments to the initial test flights?
Looks like Starliner is suffering delays due to being overweight and launch vehicle acoustics. . http://www.geekwire.com/2016/boeing-starliner-schedule-astronauts-slips-2018/
Quote from: WindnWar on 05/12/2016 03:13 amLooks like Starliner is suffering delays due to being overweight and launch vehicle acoustics. . http://www.geekwire.com/2016/boeing-starliner-schedule-astronauts-slips-2018/A little surprising the big brother company are having these problems after this much time on the project.
Not surprising at all.
Quote from: woods170 on 05/12/2016 11:28 amNot surprising at all. I for one am very surprised. All the paperwork and design reviews they did for CCiCAP went so swimmingly. All on time. Congress was very impressed.
Quote from: WindnWar on 05/12/2016 03:13 amLooks like Starliner is suffering delays due to being overweight and launch vehicle acoustics. . http://www.geekwire.com/2016/boeing-starliner-schedule-astronauts-slips-2018/Saw this on Apple News. A little surprising the big brother company are having these problems after this much time on the project.Hard to imagine that SpaceX could beat Goliath to the first manned launch. We'll know in 20-24 months, maybe.Edit: Especially when Boeing got $1.6 billion more.
I know. Previous comment was tongue in cheek. I actually wasn't surprised. Nor will I be when SpaceX follows suit.
We’re working on getting it certified, and so right now, with Boeing, per the contract, we’re going through the human spaceflight organisation and looking at all the single point failures, all the redundancy, how things work, modifying the launch rockets primarily to meet their needs. It’s also interesting because the Boeing design doesn’t have an escape tower, it basically has four thrusters on the bottom of their capsule or the service module that will eject them off if there’s a bad day. And so there’s different things that the backpressure will tear apart, the backpressure of those thrusters if you have the wrong structural load will cause it to impinge on the capsule at very high altitudes, damages the heat shield, that will cause it to have a problem on reentry,
Look, an achilles heel of the Atlas system right now is the Centaur upper stage.
Notes:1. A slip to 2018 was pretty much inevitable. Everyone watching Boeing's milestones bunch up in the back half of 2017 saw it coming.2. Since Boeing won't discuss specifics of what they're working through, we get to watch the internet speculation run wild. By Friday night the program will probably be on the brink of cancellation