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Stranded astronauts' capsule heads home without them
- ravjo 2y 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.
- Vecr 2y agoWhat's their designated lifeboat now that the Boeing is gone?
- wmf 2y agoAFAIK Crew Dragon Endeavour has been retrofitted with six seats and could (suboptimally?) evacuate the six astronauts on the ISS.
- nkoren 2y ago"Seats" is a bit generous. They'd be strapped to the cargo palettes behind the seats, without flight suits. Definitely sub-optimal.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- WalterBright 2y agoA few minutes of discomfort to save a life - seems OK to me.
- lubujackson 2y agoOn United, that's called "Premium Economy".
- IX-103 2y agoI thought they found one flight suit. Can they not use it in the cargo area?
- ravjo 2y 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 2y 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 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41470523
- nightshift1 2y agoI don't think nasa has a concept of "lifeboat" considering there are not enough seats for everyone currently in the iss.
- Vecr 2y agoThey're supposed to, between NASA, private US, and Russia. I was asking if that's currently being violated.
- creativeSlumber 2y agoThat is the definition of being stranded. They wouldn't have stayed back if they could have gone with the vehicle.
- thegrim33 2y 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.
- ed_mercer 2y agoIn an emergency, can they really prep and launch a rocket quickly? Are we talking hours/days/week/months?
- idontwantthis 2y agoThere is no emergency that would require launching a rocket. They have craft docked to the space station at all times that they can return to Earth on at a moment’s notice.
- hinkley 2y agoAnd they are not using one of those because…
- idontwantthis 2y agoBecause more than 2 of them would need to come back to Earth.
- hinkley 2y agoI thought about this overnight and isn’t the real problem that nobody is saying is that NASA never wants less than 1 re-entry module on even an empty ISS, so that if god forbid they had to evacuate everyone for any reason other than a dead station, that the next crew has two ways to get home? So even though everyone fits in the existing modules there is no spare if they let these two go home.
- lupusreal 2y ago[flagged]
- wannacboatmovie 2y 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 2y 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”.
- KyleBerezin 2y 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 2y 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.
- jmyeet 2y 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 2y 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.
- givinguflac 2y agohttps://xkcd.com/2978/ https://xkcd.com/2978/
- mrjin 2y agoDefine stranded please?
- tgsovlerkhgsel 2y 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.
- peeters 2y 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.
- KyleBerezin 2y 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.
- rjh29 2y 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 2y agorather one in a billion experience :-) at least for now
- bravetraveler 2y 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
- Razengan 2y agoWow, imagine seeing this news but about Mars or the moon…
- downrightmike 2y agoBoeing is never going to either
- fy20 2y 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 2y agoThe East India Company came back in 2010 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjiv_Mehta_(British_businessman) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjiv_Mehta_(British_busine...
- Animats 2y agoLanding video live stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ0T-cZWh78 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ0T-cZWh78
- rich_sasha 2y 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.