A big weekend lies ahead for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner as NASA prepares to make a call on whether the crew will be returning in the spacecraft, as originally planned, or as part of the Crew-9 mission in 2025.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and the agency’s leadership will hold an internal Agency Test Flight Readiness Review on Saturday, August 24. The meeting will be chaired by the associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, Ken Bowersox. A televised news conference will follow at 1300 EDT to announce the decision.
An un-noted cause of death up to about t minus 2GYa is “smashed to death on the rocks by the incoming tide”—when the Moon formed it orbited about 30,000km up with a period of a few hours and the Earth’s day was under 6 hours, leading to hundred metre high tides sweeping round the planet every few hours. (Tidal drag gradually lengthened the day and widened the Moon’s orbit to their current duration/radius.) https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/113017124213616899
The SpaceX Crew-9 mission will lift off late in September, after the Boeing capsule has headed towards the Earth, freeing a docking port on the ISS.
The SpaceX Crew-9 mission will carry only two passengers instead of the four planned originally.
NASA and SpaceX are working to reconfigure seats on the Crew-9 Dragon, “and adjusting the manifest to carry additional cargo, personal effects, and Dragon-specific spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams,” the space agency said.
NASA’s space operations chief Ken Bowersox said agency officials unanimously voted for Crew Dragon to bring the astronauts home.
Boeing voted for Starliner, saying that it was safe.
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The launch window for EscaPADE extends from October to November. A failure to get the mission heading to its destination will result in a two-year wait until Mars and Earth are aligned again to permit another try.
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