SPACE - random thread about space stuff

[Kraken]

I presume they mean the first PRIVATE orbital rocket in Europe.

I'd expect they mean first non-Russian orbital launch from European soil, given that Plesetsk and Kapustin Yar are technically in Europe. All things being equal I'd expect their frame of reference to be EU vs Russia rather than private vs government per se.

Well the ESA's been orbiting payloads for decades, but I didn't realize until just now that they never launched from Europe.

[Kraken]

Starliner's flight to the ISS was a lot hairier than we knew.

As it flew up toward the International Space Station last summer, the Starliner spacecraft lost four thrusters. A NASA astronaut, Butch Wilmore, had to take manual control of the vehicle. But as Starliner's thrusters failed, Wilmore lost the ability to move the spacecraft in the direction he wanted to go.

He and his fellow astronaut, Suni Williams, knew where they wanted to go. Starliner had flown to within a stone's throw of the space station, a safe harbor, if only they could reach it. But already, the failure of so many thrusters violated the mission's flight rules. In such an instance, they were supposed to turn around and come back to Earth. Approaching the station was deemed too risky for Wilmore and Williams, aboard Starliner, as well as for the astronauts on the $100 billion space station.

But what if it was not safe to come home, either?

"I don't know that we can come back to Earth at that point," Wilmore said in an interview. "I don't know if we can. And matter of fact, I'm thinking we probably can't."

Much detail follows.

[Daehawk]

You cant trust the Musk

[Kraken]

Musk has nothing to do with Starliner. If you want to berate someone, berate Boeing.

[Daehawk]

Oh whoops....ya Boeing has been its own worst enemy for a few years now.