The far side is “always” dark and we don’t know what’s there?
The lip sync is way off - I think this is a spoof. The link to Natural News isn’t filling me with confidence.
Here’s the full video on the official House Appropriations Committee YouTube channel:
Sorry for the initial janky link, but it’s the only one I found that was trimmed down to the right moment.
Maybe it’ll work for you, but when I replayed the clip, it didn’t actually go to the proper spot. It’s at 1:36:29 if the link doesn’t work. Or maybe try this non-inline link:
https://youtu.be/NISFxcWeZNA?t=5789
Two things. The clip you posted above goes to the right point for me (Microsoft Edge), and Bill Nelson sounds not only like a total moron, but also sounds drunk, or suffering from some cognitive disability. Seems like one of Biden’s mistakes.
Sort of ironic that the previous admin–Jim Bridenstine–was appointed by Trump and a climate change denier. But he changed his mind on the matter and was a very reasonable administrator. We sorta lucked into that one.
New EVA suit just dropped:
It’s going to be used on the Polaris Dawn mission–a private mission with an EVA session.
It’s an improved version of the current IVA suit (which is intended only to protect the crew in case of depressurization). It has, among other things, a heads-up display and rotation bearings in the shoulders and forearm for better arm mobility.
There’s no life support backpack at the moment–it’s going to be tethered to the Dragon. And the Dragon doesn’t have an airlock, so they’ll have to drop that down to vacuum when exiting. But Dragon already supported that for safety reasons and they’ve done additional testing. Also, the EVA suit is pressurized to 5.1 psi, while Dragon nominally runs at atmospheric (~15 psi). So they’ll slowly reduce pressure as the mission progresses while increasing the oxygen component (or rather, they’ll just reduce the partial pressure of the nitrogen).
Flight of Starliner tonight, May 6 (unless it gets delayed), with liftoff set for 10:34 p.m. EDT:
I hope the crew are getting hazard pay.
I’ve been on the Dope too long, as evidenced by the fact that my first understanding of that sentence is “who is suing whom about space walking?”
Here’s more on it: https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/05/world/boeing-starliner-launch-preview-scn/index.html
NASA stream here:
It’s live, but the launch is still 3.75 hrs off.
Scrubbed. No details yet.
ETA: Flaky oxygen relief valve on the second stage (Centaur)
And the universe continues to shit on Boeing.
I understand that NASA needs a option other than SpaceX, but c’mon, this is entering the realm of government purchasing farce.
Starship would be cheaper even if it was completely expendable. If it makes its reusability goals it will be able to support lunar missions entirely independent of NASA.
I noticed that for the two astronauts: Suni William is 58 years old while Butch Williams is 61 years old. At this age your reflexes aren’t as fast… My impression is that earlier astronauts were significantly younger. Any thoughts on this?
They’re spam in a can, as it were. No great demand for fast reflexes.
Nothing happens in space at a pace where reflexes matter. Either you have hours, or you were dead before you’d noticed.
As the learned @Dr.Strangelove said, modern space vehicles are driven by their computers, not by their passengers.
I haven’t found a picture yet of Starliner’s emergency controls. Here are Dragon’s:
None of these warrant fast reflexes. On the contrary: you want to be really, really sure before you engage any of them. The big “eject” handle should really never be used at all since even in a launch escape system engagement, the rocket should be doing everything for you. It’s really tough to imagine a situation where the rocket is failing but the system hasn’t engaged, since to a first approximation it engages when the “Everything is ok! Everything is ok!” signals stop coming in.
There are also the deorbit controls, both for water (recommended since the craft is designed for water landings) and “now” (which is less desirable but probably still survivable in most cases). You really want to be sure what you’re doing when you engage those systems.
I expect that Starliner is fairly similar with respect to the emergency options. And of course, all of these can be commanded from the ground if required. So they’re only relevant in the case where a lot of things have gone wrong all at once, including communications.
Starliner launch delayed to 5/17:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/
I dunno, man. 11 days? Seems like a lot.
The second Dragon flight also had a flaky valve. They replaced it that same day, and launched again less than 3 days later. They probably could have launched even earlier, but orbital mechanics doesn’t always allow that.
Consider the Apollo 13 situation. The crew there was an average of 20 years younger than this crew. Would a 60 year old crew have done as well?