I was still there. 1.
It was still functional (how?!). 2.
And, kind if the best part: even the camera was still working!!
Yeah, really, that was one hell of a flight.
And the visuals it gave us! It, at times, almost gave the impression of looking at the inside of a nuclear reactor. The slowly growing and evolving plasma bubble, to think we were able to see that is awesome.
In contrast to the amazing starship test, the Boeing Starliner is victim of multiple helium leaks, an RCS thruster out of service and even 4 thrusters that shut down before going back online again.
While Boeing tweets about all the tests they are doing (without giving the results) about the thruster faults, Starliner is still docked at the ISS, and no return date is set. NASA is silent but it is now known that they have asked SpaceX to imagine a emergency mission without admitting it might be for the Starliner crew.
Of course money is probably in the equation now.The image of the Starliner being unsafe for human flight has a price for Boeing at a time when the 737 Max with the crashes and unscrewed doors already hurts the company in its core business.
The SpaceX "Crew 9" mission to the ISS planned for August 18th is delayed at least to the end of september to evaluate possibilities of getting the starliner crew back onboard the starliner, or on freed seats onboard Crew 9.
Anyways, the Starliner crew that was to stay at the ISS for two weeks from June might come back in February 2025.
The astronauts who flew to the ISS Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will fly down in a SpaceX crewdragon. The heap of hňjunj that bears the official name "Starliner" will fly down unmanned and we will see if it makes it.
For Boeing that means low profile if the ship is lost, but perhaps suing NASA for making them look bad if the Starliner gets home.
NASA officials announced that the troubled Boeing Starliner spacecraft that shuttled two astronauts to space in June will return to earth without them.
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