Boeing StarLiner/NASA attempt to return to Earth unmanned on for tonight,

[Atomic Kid]

The Boeing StarLiner, which is designed to come down on land rather water, will attempt an unmanned auto-pilot return to Earth shortly before midnight. The crew will remain in the Space Station due concerns about the StarLiner’s problematic thruster system. The crew will return to Earth on the Space X flight scheduled for February.The intended landing zone will be the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

 

[beefheart]

The Boeing StarLiner, which is designed to come down on land rather water, will attempt an unmanned auto-pilot return to Earth shortly before midnight. The crew will remain in the Space Station due concerns about the StarLiner’s problematic thruster system. The crew will return to Earth on the Space X flight scheduled for February.The intended landing zone will be the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

I think it will be OK, but NASA did the right thing, you can replace equipment, not lives.

The coverage is about to start, here:

 

[phoenix2020]

What a fiasco. I hope it makes it down safely and intact. Otherwise, Starliner (and Boeing's fortunes for manned space exploration) are toast.

 

[Peter]

Just for the sake of the Boeing staff I hope this goes OK.
If the company does self destruct it's going to take a shitload of jobs in the US and worldwide with them.

 

[phoenix2020]

The Boeing StarLiner, which is designed to come down on land rather water, will attempt an unmanned auto-pilot return to Earth shortly before midnight. The crew will remain in the Space Station due concerns about the StarLiner’s problematic thruster system. The crew will return to Earth on the Space X flight scheduled for February.The intended landing zone will be the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

I voted that it will land safely but admittedly this is more because that's what I hope happens rather than what I believe will happen.

 

[eohrnberger]

I'm crossing my fingers that all will go well and the spacecraft will have a successful landing, that the suspected thruster control problem was an instrumentation problem and nothing more.

That said, I think its a prudent set of decisions which led NASA to this point, to not risk the crew's lives.
Cheers to SpaceX to provide transport back to Earth for the crew.

 

[Pyrite]

The Boeing StarLiner, which is designed to come down on land rather water, will attempt an unmanned auto-pilot return to Earth shortly before midnight. The crew will remain in the Space Station due concerns about the StarLiner’s problematic thruster system. The crew will return to Earth on the Space X flight scheduled for February.The intended landing zone will be the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Not sure it will go without problems - or a loss - but, fingers crossed.

Thanks for starting this thread.

 

[beefheart]

The undocking will be a bit different, they had planned on doing a fly around of the station, but they are pushing it out and up and out of the way...

 

[DrewPaul]

I hope it goes well also...I also hope Boeing gets its act together. This is really running thin.

 

[Atomic Kid]

I think it will be OK, but NASA did the right thing, you can replace equipment, not lives.

The coverage is about to start, here:

The way things have been going for Boeing lately I’m expecting it to burn up but I’m hoping for a successful landing because we need to have some competition for Space X.

 

[Chock Full o Nuts]

Somethings bound to fall off..

 

[Atomic Kid]

The undocking will be a bit different, they had planned on doing a fly around of the station, but they are pushing it out and up and out of the way...

That’s the safer way to do it since they can’t be sure that they can safely maneuver it.

 

[Moon]

The Boeing StarLiner, which is designed to come down on land rather water, will attempt an unmanned auto-pilot return to Earth shortly before midnight. The crew will remain in the Space Station due concerns about the StarLiner’s problematic thruster system. The crew will return to Earth on the Space X flight scheduled for February.The intended landing zone will be the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Hope it goes well. With all of the problems Boeing has had, and a strike likely to start next week, they could use a small win right now.

 

[Pyrite]

I hope it goes well also...I also hope Boeing gets its act together. This is really running thin.

Yeah, me, too.

From what I've read, years ago, Boeing brass more or less chucked the "engineers-run-this-company" policy in favor of the bottom-line approach (not unique to Boeing, of course). Unfortunately, for such a technology-dependent product, minimizing the "we have to get it right" attitude has had severe consequences that, of course, have been very public.

As has been pointed out, a lot of people are dependent upon this and other Boeing products....

 

[Common Sense 1]

I hope that the Boeing StarLiner returns safely and they can get the problems solved quickly.

 

[Moon]

I think it will be OK, but NASA did the right thing, you can replace equipment, not lives.

The coverage is about to start, here:

Thanks for the link. This is like watching a wounded bird and wondering if it’s going to live.

 

[Chock Full o Nuts]

I think it will be OK, but NASA did the right thing, you can replace equipment, not lives.

The coverage is about to start, here:

Just watching it floating in the darkness, appearing almost stationary, but cruising along at about 17,000 mph is amazing.

 

[Pyrite]

Thanks for the link. This is like watching a wounded bird and wondering if it’s going to live.

Exactly.

 

[Luce]

I picked option 3: It will fail on undocking, taking out the Soyuz lifeboat and shitting its guts all over the solar panels.

 

[beefheart]

I picked option 3: It will fail on undocking, taking out the Soyuz lifeboat and shitting its guts all over the solar panels.

Too late. It undocked perfectly fine.

 

[Luce]

Too late. It undocked perfectly fine.

It is never too late for Boeing to **** up.

 

[phoenix2020]

These were short pulse burns; the real test will be the deorbit burn in a few hours.

 

[Peter]

Hope it goes well. With all of the problems Boeing has had, and a strike likely to start next week, they could use a small win right now.

The company really needs to have a long and hard look at themselves and get back to quality and safety first.

Profits need to take a back seat for a while so they can regain the trust of airlines and customers.

 

[Pyrite]

The Boeing StarLiner, which is designed to come down on land rather water, will attempt an unmanned auto-pilot return to Earth shortly before midnight. The crew will remain in the Space Station due concerns about the StarLiner’s problematic thruster system. The crew will return to Earth on the Space X flight scheduled for February.The intended landing zone will be the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

An Empty Boeing Starliner Begins Return to Earth: How to Watch

Two NASA astronauts remain aboard the International Space Station after the troubled vehicle they rode undocked ahead of a landing early Saturday in the New Mexico desert.

www.nytimes.com

...Starliner undocked from the space station on schedule at 6:04 p.m. Eastern time Friday. NASA continued broadcasting coverage as the spacecraft departed from the I.S.S., first pushed away by springs and then with series of thruster firings. By 6:10 p.m., the vehicle was outside of a “keep-out sphere” that defines a safety zone around the space station.

Coverage of the re-entry and landing of Starliner is scheduled to begin at 10:50 p.m....

 

[phoenix2020]

The company really needs to have a long and hard look at themselves and get back to quality and safety first.

Profits need to take a back seat for a while so they can regain the trust of airlines and customers.

I'm going to dissent here and say that they need to get back to engineering efficiency first.

Remember, Starliner hasn't just failed. It was outdone by Crew Dragon by every conceivable metric--while costing less money. Boeing didn't just whiff on quality and safety. They whiffed on the profits part as well by blowing the budget on a fixed cost contract.

Boeing needs to become a far more efficient engineering organization. Greater efficiency = faster iteration. Faster iteration = converging to quality and safety targets sooner. Converging to quality and safety targets more quickly = lower cost and greater profits.