Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Starliner Fails to Make Journey to ISS

posted by janrinok on Friday December 20 2019, @06:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the keep-on-trying dept.

PiMuNu writes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50855395

The Boeing company is going to have to cut short the uncrewed demonstration flight of its new astronaut capsule.

The Starliner launched successfully on its Atlas rocket from Florida, but then suffered technical problems that prevented it from taking the correct path to the International Space Station.

It appears the capsule burnt too much fuel as it operated its engines, leaving an insufficient supply to complete its mission.

Starliner will now come back to Earth. A landing is planned in the New Mexico desert in about 48 hours.

See also:

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Starliner Fails to Make Journey to ISS | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 45 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @07:08PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @07:08PM (#935028)

    Space isn't intuitive. For the obvious stuff: Land on a mountain - crew dies. Land in the middle of the ocean - timely recovery may not be possible. Come in too hot - crew dies. Land in the middle of a city - people die. Land in unfriendly lands - crew may be in danger, recovery difficult.

    But even when you get into deorbiting there's a surprisingly large amount of art involved. For instance atmospheric braking can bring you down even if you don't have enough delta v to get the exact insertion you want, but calculating the exact change in speed there - let alone the resultant trajectory is not really possible, so it comes with a substantial risk:reward calculation especially as you start factoring in the above issues.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday December 22 2019, @03:03PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday December 22 2019, @03:03PM (#935181) Journal
    It doesn't matter if space is intuitive or not. That's the decision process either way. No amount of art is going to replace the delta-v required to get to the ISS. And returning to Earth is a matter of waiting a few hours until you get a good position for a return. The O2 and other crew consumables required is going to be a whole lot less than the propellant required to deorbit.