Starliner flies to wrong orbit

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shpalman
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Re: Starliner flies to wrong orbit

Post by shpalman » Sun Feb 09, 2020 11:14 am

Matatouille wrote:
Sun Feb 09, 2020 8:07 am
Gfamily wrote:
Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:14 pm
The re-entry issue isn't unique to Starliner - there seems to have been a significant risk of the Apollo 11 re-entry from the service module.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswith ... 8040787cbd
I thought I knew quite a lot about the Apollo missions, but have to admit to not having come across that before! Fascinating.
Agreed.

From there I followed a link to the story of Sergei Korolev whose rockets brought humanity above the bonds of Earth's gravity, including his modified R-7 which launched Yuri Gagarin into space: the first human to break the gravitational bonds of Earth, building on the work of others such as Konstantin Tsiolkovsky who were at work on the problem long before humanity ever broke the gravitational bonds of Earth.

Now it's bad enough that the author got fixated on "gravitational bonds" but in a low earth orbit the gravity is almost as strong as at the surface (maybe only about 10% less); orbits only happen at all because you're "bonded" by gravity.

I'd have expected better from a "Ph.D. astrophysicist, author, and science communicator".
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bmforre
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Re: Starliner flies to wrong orbit

Post by bmforre » Sat Mar 07, 2020 8:06 am

NASA no longer trust Boeing.
NASA shows it’s lost confidence in Boeing’s ability to police its own work on Starliner space capsule
The space agency will embed software experts alongside Boeing’s engineers to increase oversight

... more than two months after the test mission was cut short by what Boeing and NASA now acknowledge were potentially catastrophic software errors, the space agency is being far more blunt about the poor performance of one of its most trusted contractors and dictating the steps Boeing must take to fix the serious problems that have been uncovered.

In a call with reporters Friday, NASA officials said an independent investigation of the marred test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has produced 61 corrective actions and identified 49 gaps in Boeing’s testing procedures. A decision on whether Boeing will be allowed to proceed with flying astronauts or have to redo the test mission without humans on board may be months away, they said.
Bluntly stating:
“We could have lost a spacecraft twice during this mission,” said Doug Loverro, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and mission operations. “So clearly this was a close call.”

Meanwhile Space X today launched yet another resupply mission now in good orbit to arrive at ISS on Monday.

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Re: Starliner flies to wrong orbit

Post by bmforre » Sat Mar 07, 2020 10:22 am

Boeing fined by FAA for sloppiness
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday announced that it will fine Boeing $19.7 million for installing heads-up displays in the cockpits of 791 aircraft that were not certified as compatible with sensors on the aircraft.

The heads-up displays are optional equipment — tinted pieces of glass just above the pilot’s eye level that display key data such as airspeed and altitude.

They allow the pilot to read the data without looking down at the instrument panel. The data is fed to the display from standard sensors on the airplane’s exterior, such as the altimeter and the angle of attack sensor.

However, only specific sensors are tested and approved as compatible with the heads-up display.

Between June 2015 and March 2019, the FAA said Boeing installed the heads-up displays, made by Rockwell Collins, on 618 Boeing 737 NG aircraft and 173 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft with sensors that were not listed as compatible.

Boeing’s engineering staff and its authorized representatives who report to the FA failed to verify the compatibility of the sensors.

As a result, the FAA said, “Boeing failed to maintain its quality system” and “the aircraft were unworthy.”

Boeing has 30 days to pay the fine or negotiate a reduction.
This has nothing directly to do with Starliner but may be related to company cultural reasons for troubles with both this and that.

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