(CNN) SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to return Boeing Starliner crew to Earth; A Song for Boeing Quoting,
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will bring home two NASA astronauts who have remained on board the International Space Station for about 80 days because of issues plaguing the Boeing Starliner spacecraft — marking a stunning turn of events for the beleaguered aerospace giant.
This is not stunning to the engineering profession. As soon as I had knowledge of the publicly disclosed details of the fuel valve problem, I knew Starliner would not fly the crew return mission. It should not be stunning to journalists. It highlights the weak information flow between engineers and journalists, mediated by a cultural bias of silence among those who know and insufficient curiosity among those who want to know.
What remains stunning is that Starliner was launched with a crew.
See (CNN) Boeing, NASA may have found ‘root cause’ of Starliner spacecraft’s issues, but astronauts are still in limbo, Quoting,
“Of course, I’m very confident we have a good vehicle to bring the crew back with,” Nappi said. My bullshit detector went off….
See seven more Boeing articles. Quoting from (CNN) Prosecutors urge Justice Department to file criminal charges against Boeing over 737 Max; Prosecute Boeing!,
NASA should take a hard look at the troubled Starliner. Advances in core technologies make it technically easy compared to the Apollo program a half a century prior. Persistent technical problems in this space capsule design, which has strong legacy roots, are indicative of design and specification problems, which are indicative of people problems — an unwelcome spinoff of bad safety culture.
A song for Boeing, courtesy of Nat King Cole: