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#280
by
CNYMike
on 22 Mar, 2018 15:44
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CNBC story on Starliner:
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#281
by
MattMason
on 22 Mar, 2018 16:19
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CNBC story on Starliner:
That was one of the most impressive bits of space TV journalism I've seen anyone do in a very long time. Extremely detailed and accurate. The only oversimplification was the description of SpaceX's CC contribution--but this wasn't a story on them, so I'll let that pass.
It's my first time to see Starliner's construction at this level. The journalist got a great opportunity to show as well as explain a great amount of information. Well worth the watch.
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#282
by
Archibald
on 25 Mar, 2018 09:44
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Thanks Archibald - That is a snazzy-looking Service Module! 
And when you think about it further, not only the capsules look similar, but also the background: which makes some sense, since (afaik) the CST-100 production line is at The Cape in the former shuttle OPF, not too far from where the Apollo 11 CSM was processed.
History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes.
(oh, and the face of the fellow in the video above, he looks uncannily similar to the former French president François Hollande, the one who ended with 4% positive approval ratings
)
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#283
by
FutureSpaceTourist
on 26 Mar, 2018 19:50
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#284
by
FutureSpaceTourist
on 26 Mar, 2018 19:53
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#285
by
jacqmans
on 28 Mar, 2018 19:04
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On March 15, the base heat shield for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner was freshly installed on the bottom of Spacecraft 1 in the High Bay of the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center. This is the spacecraft that will fly during the Pad Abort Test. The next step involves installation of the back shells and forward heat shield, and then the crew module will be mated to the service module for a fit check. Finally, the vehicle will head out to White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for testing.
Photo Credit: Boeing
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#286
by
Archibald
on 29 Mar, 2018 10:06
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It looks like a screen shot from the epic HBO series, From the Earth to the Moon
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#287
by
Ike17055
on 01 Apr, 2018 16:52
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While I appreciate the excitement on this website for what Space X is accomplshing, I am somewhat baffled that there isn’t more excitement (or more postings) for this Boeing entry. We have a new human-rated spacecraft, folks, or will very soon. That is big stuff. We are finally putting EELVs to work (flying people) in a way only talked about and thought about for many years. We have a new human-capable pad now available, and will be returning manned flight back to the AFS at the Cape — something not seen since Apollo 7. I personally cannot wait to see this vehicle on the pad, and am excited thinking of the future path this ship might take, as well as Crew Dragon, in bringing human flight to a wider audience, and how Starliner might evolve, as well. While Boeing has its detractors, for sure, they are an aerospace giant, and now have the capability to leverage enormous resources into the development of spaceflight in ways that are no longer soley dictated by NASA budgets, if they choose to do so.
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#288
by
rockets4life97
on 01 Apr, 2018 23:12
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While I appreciate the excitement on this website for what Space X is accomplshing, I am somewhat baffled that there isn’t more excitement (or more postings) for this Boeing entry.
I think what you are missing is that most of the SpaceX excitement isn't about Crew Dragon, the equivalent here of Starliner. It seems to me that most of the excitement in the SpaceX forums is about reusable boosters, fairing recovery, Falcon Heavy, BFR, and increasingly Starlink. I think if Boeing said they were going to self-fund any kind of reusable launch vehicle, or deep space spaceship there would be lots of attention here (see the growing interest in the Blue Origin areas of the forum).
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#289
by
Bob Shaw
on 01 Apr, 2018 23:51
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Boeing's PR output has been pretty pedestrian - no sign of an Elon Musk doing reveals through clouds of dry ice then climbing aboard, just stills at best of guys in simulators. Also, no actual launches (for however short a duration). For my ten cents, Starliner is simply Boeing's long-term bet against Orion vanishing up it's own budget, allowing the company to position itself in the post-Orion marketplace... ...your mileage may vary!
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#290
by
jtrame
on 03 Apr, 2018 11:30
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Boeing's PR output has been pretty pedestrian - no sign of an Elon Musk doing reveals through clouds of dry ice then climbing aboard, just stills at best of guys in simulators.
With the exception of the pictures coming from the cape of actual CST-100 vehicles under construction. Not a lot of pictures of this quality coming from Hawthorne yet as far as the manned version of Dragon is concerned.
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#291
by
Sknowball
on 04 Apr, 2018 17:01
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#292
by
woods170
on 05 Apr, 2018 06:49
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Boeing's PR output has been pretty pedestrian - no sign of an Elon Musk doing reveals through clouds of dry ice then climbing aboard, just stills at best of guys in simulators.
With the exception of the pictures coming from the cape of actual CST-100 vehicles under construction. Not a lot of pictures of this quality coming from Hawthorne yet as far as the manned version of Dragon is concerned.
Emphasis mine.
That's on purpose:
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=41016.msg1742534#msg1742534
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#293
by
Ike17055
on 05 Apr, 2018 11:38
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Well Crew Dragon generated lots of commentary and interest when it planned for propulsive landing, but since that went away, I would agree that a lot of folks moved on to anything else that was bright and shiny and new...how can the return of crewed domestic flight now be considered less exciting than lobbying a Tesla?
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#294
by
AbuSimbel
on 05 Apr, 2018 12:05
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Well Crew Dragon generated lots of commentary and interest when it planned for propulsive landing, but since that went away, I would agree that a lot of folks moved on to anything else that was bright and shiny and new...how can the return of crewed domestic flight now be considered less exciting than lobbying a Tesla?
Because it's just politics. Anyone outside the US doesn't care. What space fans care about is broadened access to space, so two private companies launching crew is much more exciting than 'launching from the american soil'.
Still, given how mission costs for both Strainer and Dragon 2 are very high (partly because of NASA), I'm personally keeping my excitement in check.
Seeing modern capsule designs fly, cool suits will be awesome, and I'm looking forward to it, but it's not the reason for the broader excitement towards SpaceX and new space companies.
What I'm really excited about is reusability, lower costs, high cadence for cargo flights. I'll be then extremely excited when all of this gets passed to human spaceflight with BFR, New Glenn and other crewed reusable systems that have the potential to make human spaceflight mainstream.
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#295
by
su27k
on 05 Apr, 2018 13:09
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Well Crew Dragon generated lots of commentary and interest when it planned for propulsive landing, but since that went away, I would agree that a lot of folks moved on to anything else that was bright and shiny and new...how can the return of crewed domestic flight now be considered less exciting than lobbying a Tesla?
Remember we didn't know about Tesla until T-2 months, and it didn't become a big hit until after the launch. Before T-2 months there's not a lot of excitement because there's no public image of the integrated vehicle and nobody is sure when exactly the launch will happen. I think the same applies to CC, right now there's too much schedule uncertainty, people will get excited once we have completed hardware at the cape.
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#296
by
SWGlassPit
on 05 Apr, 2018 15:37
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Friendly reminder that this isn't a SpaceX thread :-)
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#297
by
Ike17055
on 06 Apr, 2018 00:59
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...how can the return of crewed domestic flight now be considered less exciting than lobbying a Tesla?
Because it's just politics. Anyone outside the US doesn't care. What space fans care about is broadened access to space, so two private companies launching crew is much more exciting than 'launching from the american soil'.
Seeing modern capsule designs fly, cool suits will be awesome, and I'm looking forward to it, but it's not the reason for the broader excitement towards SpaceX and new space companies.
What I'm really excited about is reusability, lower costs, high cadence for cargo flights. I'll be then extremely excited when all of this gets passed to human spaceflight with BFR, New Glenn and other crewed reusable systems that have the potential to make human spaceflight mainstream.
Well, first off, it is America’s space program, so if others outside aren’t excited, I don’t really care, nor is it very important overall. The American space “audience” - even on the casual scale of interest - is still far larger than that of other countries at this point. That should translate logically into a large number of persons paying attention to something important to us —the ability to launch our own astronauts again — something that has been missing for years now. No offense intended.
Moreover, besides Russia and China, none of these other space-capable (or space-interested countries) have a crew launch capability at all, so they can continue to focus on non-crew flight if that is their thing. Good for them. Interestingly though, they really should be very interested in seeing an alternative to the stranglehold the other countries have on human launch. The American program will boost launch capacity and with it, their own opportunities for participation in crewed flight enormously.
Your Interest in reusability is understandable. It is very interesting stuff, — moreso to the engineers in the crowd who can appreciate its complexities — but the jury is still out on how much impact it might have, years from now, on making flight “mainstream.” Even the majority of space enthusiasts with some knowledge, cAn’t tell the significance separating a 500 million dollar launch from 100 Million dollar launch. A cheaper launch does not look that much different, just maybe more of them. But That didnt generate “more” excitement for Shuttle or Apollo— in fact, quite the opposite.
So, while Reusability is interesting to watch develop, it is hard to describe as “exciting”on a sustained basis to most folks, even knowledgeable ones. The Crew programs however, are on the verge of realizing success very, very soon. And new vehicles are really a pretty rare thing. Progress toward new crew launches is picking up tempo, and that should be generating significant interest. Why it doesn’t do so here continues to surprise me. If nothing else, the Cape is certainly expecting a big influx of new space launch tourism. It showed with the FH launch, which I attended. So maybe what is “mainstream” is very different that what you assume it to be.
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#298
by
TrevorMonty
on 06 Apr, 2018 10:22
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Neither Boeing or SpaceX have said much about space tourism except SpaceX moon flyby was has been canned. While an initial market for $25-$35m seats may not be huge I'd expect there is enough demand for a couple launches each a year.
If Boeing can sell 2-3 flights over and above
NASA missions it would go long way to helping ULA achieve its 10 launches a year.
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#299
by
Star One
on 06 Apr, 2018 20:20
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NASA studies extending Boeing commercial crew test flight to support ISSWASHINGTON — A commercial crew contract modification moves NASA one step closer to using a test flight as an operational mission to maintain a presence on the International Space Station.
NASA announced April 5 that it had updated its Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract with Boeing to study potential changes to the second of two test flights of the company’s CST-100 Starliner vehicle, currently intended to carry two people on a short-duration mission to the station.
Those changes, NASA said, would involve adding a third crewmember to flight and extending its mission from two weeks to as long as six months, the typical length of an astronaut’s stay on the ISS. The changes would involve training and mission support for that third crewmember and the potential to fly cargo on both that mission and an earlier uncrewed test flight.
http://spacenews.com/nasa-studies-extending-boeing-commercial-crew-test-flight-to-support-iss/
)