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.
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 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.
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.
The astronauts in orbit already have their ride home. This is a shift change not a rescue.
The astronauts in orbit are likely going to die at a young age from cosmic radiation exposure. I worry they will want to cover this up and let the stranded astronauts die just to keep up interest in “billionaires with rockets.”
You say that, but they just scrubbed the launch to save 4 lives. That’s saying something.