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NASA decides to keep 2 astronauts in space until February, nixes return on troubled Boeing capsule (apnews.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Boeing is going to undock and try to land uncrewed in Sept.

SpaceX is going to send up their next mission with two empty seats for a February return of the stuck astronauts.

In an emergency, the current SpaceX capsule could theoretically bring back the two stranded astronauts, but that's not a realistic solution for anything short of a disaster.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Just imagine if it really craps out and doesn't make it, thankfully without anyone inside... but still...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Will probably perform just fine. NASA update a couple weeks back covered results for multiple test firings of the thrusters to solve what was going on during approach. They all worked fine. Some at only 2-3% off peak performance window versus the 20% off that had been measured. So whatever tinkering had been going on seemed to have worked.

One curiosity they'll never be sure on was if seals were truly restricting fuel flow. That potentially the long wait time from stacking everything to launch caused swelling. And now in space that swelling has gone down which is why fuel flow has been fine. But the thruster module they would need to inspect gets left in space before re-entry. So we'll never know for sure.