Re:The Engineer Who Refused to Approve the Challenger Launch
by dylan604 on Friday June 21, 2024 @11:44AM
(#40750750)
Can't we apply the same logic to the current Starliner situation. There's no way it should have launched, but someone brow beat others into saying it was an acceptable risk with the known issues to go ahead with the launch. Okay, so the launch was successful, but other issues that were known and suspect then caused problems after launch to the point they are not positive it can return. So, should it have launched? Luckily, at least to this point, nobody has been hurt/killed, and the vehicle is somewhat still intact.
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Re:The Engineer Who Refused to Approve the Challenger Launch
by themadturk on Friday June 21, 2024 @05:52PM
(#40754223)
There are mitigations (of a sort) for the Starliner. It probably should not have launched, but now that it has, the flight crew is no longer in danger and can be brought down via Crew Dragon if necessary (as if Boeing needs any more embarrassment). If I was NASA, I'd take that option; though actual danger to the astronauts coming down in the Starliner seems minimal, having SpaceX do the job just seems safer.
As it is, NASA is keeping the Starline in orbit to learn as much as possible about what's going on with the helium leaks, which are in the service module, which won't be coming back to earth for examination.