CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A launch pad problem prompted SpaceX to delay a flight to the International Space Station on Wednesday to replace NASA’s two stuck astronauts.
The new crew needs to get to the International Space Station before Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams can head home after nine months in orbit.
Concerns over a critical hydraulic system arose less than four hours before the Falcon rocket’s planned evening liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. As the countdown clocks ticked down, engineers evaluated the hydraulics used to release one of the two arms clamping the rocket to its support structure. This structure needs to tilt back right before liftoff.
Yet again with the media, the astronauts aren’t stuck on ISS. It is blatantly false to headline such. Haven’t been since ehhh was it November. They have a perfectly working lifeboat capsule with seats. They could return any moment now should it be deemed necessary.
Their mission profile got changed. They are now part of the next expedition crew and as such their normal schedule return depends on, when replacement expedition arrives to maintain continuity of expeditions. Couple other astronauts expeditions slots got bumped to make this happen.
These are professional astronauts. Being part of expedition crews is pinnacle achievement of one’s career. Not to mention with both of them given their age and time already in space, this is their last space mission. I doubt they much mind their last mission is instead of week long test flight of a new capsule, an 8 month long long stay space station expedition. Ending ones in space career in style with a long stay expedition doing experiments and studies on ISS.
Mr. Musk, I heard that your failure —twice now— to bring them home was political, and that without your interference, NASA would already have them home safely.
What do you say to that?
“Biden did it” literally.
Where’s all the hate like NASA got when they exercised caution and couldn’t retrieve the astronauts?
I thought it was delayed for political reasons by Biden? Is he somehow still in power 2 months into the Trump presidency? I’m starting to think this Musk guy might not always be truthful when he says things.
I’m super pissed off, my car stopped working today. The little fuel indicator said E. Thanks a lot Biden. Then while walking to the gas station it started raining. Seriously f that guy.
If I was one of those astronauts and a SpaceX rocket docked with the ISS to take me home, I’d say “No thanks. I choose life.”
With 446 successful missions out of 448 total launches, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has literally the best safety record in the history of human spaceflight. No safer rocket has ever existed. So that would be a weird reaction. They’d be worried about a Boeing spacecraft.
Of course they might be against flying with a Nazi’s company, but that has nothing to do with safety.
Ok, but their other options are Boeing and Russian Soyuz.
Yeah but Soyuz has a pretty long track record of being safe
Still a worse safety record than SpaceX’s.
- Soyuz-2: 143 successes / 148 launches (96.6%)
- Falcon 9: 446 successes / 448 launches (99.6%)
Fair, I was assuming that their unease was moral not safety.
NASA just had to hand things over to SpaceX and Boeing.
Yay privatization. Gotta make billionaires richer! But wait, NASA was expensive?
Just take NASA money and give it to Musk!
Since records began, SpaceX has been promised nearly $20.7 billion in government contracts, research grants, and other forms of public assistance, with roughly $8.7 billion actually paid out so far.
Of that promised money, $14.6 billion came from contracts with NASA, covering everything from supply runs to the International Space Station to the design and testing of a new moon lander.
But we can’t just give one billionaire money, how about another?
Senate competitiveness bill includes $10B authorization for Bezos space company
How much was NASA’s budget last year?
The agency will get $24.875 billion, half a billion less than its FY2023 spending level of $25.384 billion and more than $2 billion less than President Biden’s request of $27.185 billion.
https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/nasa-gets-significant-cut-in-final-fy2024-appropriations/
Space Billionaires are so much cheaper… /s
They act as Congress directs, so yeah they did have to.
Ah, right… The only government-funded thing I was first aware of as a child was Amtrak. So I kinda have that expectation.
After watching two of their launches result in fireworks, I’d be concerned. I mean, imagine being the two in orbit being rescued by Musk. It’s a hard swallow.
Starship is an experimental prototype. They’ve still landed the Super Heavy booster - what, two or three times now already? Meanwhile, Falcon 9 has been launching and landing near-flawlessly for so long that we don’t even pay attention to it anymore. Is their technology perfect? Of course not - nothing is. But I still think one should focus on the bigger picture rather than letting their opinion of the CEO cloud their judgment.
Starship is still very much an unmanned prototype with major issues to work out. Falcon 9 and the Dragon capsule are proven, reliable tech. I’d rather be on that than Boeing’s piece of garbage. That’s who stranded them there.
It’s okay to separate the achievements of SpaceX from the Nazi fuckstick who owns it. The engineers there are brilliant, despite their boss.
The astronauts in orbit already have their ride home. This is a shift change not a rescue.
You say that, but they just scrubbed the launch to save 4 lives. That’s saying something.
