First manned Starliner mission slips to May
The first manned mission of Boeing’s Starliner capsule has now been delayed another few weeks, to early May, due to scheduling conflicts at ISS.
The delay was revealed as an aside in a NASA press release detailing the schedule of press briefings related to the mission. There appears to be no technical reasons for the delay. The quiet way NASA revealed it probably just indicates the agency’s embarrassment at Boeing’s overall problems with this spacecraft that have caused a four year delay in its first manned mission.
The flight will dock with ISS, last two weeks, and carry two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Its goal is to complete the final check out of Starliner prior to the initiation of operational missions. Once done, Boeing will not only begin to fly paid flights to ISS for NASA, it will be free to offer this capsule to others, including commercial tourists. Don’t expect customers to flock to buy seats, considering the many problems both Boeing and Starliner have had. Instead, it will likely take Boeing several years of NASA missions to reassure customers the spacecraft is reliable.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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The first manned mission of Boeing’s Starliner capsule has now been delayed another few weeks, to early May, due to scheduling conflicts at ISS.
The delay was revealed as an aside in a NASA press release detailing the schedule of press briefings related to the mission. There appears to be no technical reasons for the delay. The quiet way NASA revealed it probably just indicates the agency’s embarrassment at Boeing’s overall problems with this spacecraft that have caused a four year delay in its first manned mission.
The flight will dock with ISS, last two weeks, and carry two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Its goal is to complete the final check out of Starliner prior to the initiation of operational missions. Once done, Boeing will not only begin to fly paid flights to ISS for NASA, it will be free to offer this capsule to others, including commercial tourists. Don’t expect customers to flock to buy seats, considering the many problems both Boeing and Starliner have had. Instead, it will likely take Boeing several years of NASA missions to reassure customers the spacecraft is reliable.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
“Don’t expect customers to flock to buy seats, considering the many problems both Boeing and Starliner have had.”
Yeah, having a door pop off in space is a tad more serious than at 16,000 feet.
Are the wheels coming off at Boeing?
(Sarcasm)
sippin_bourbon: I need to post about this. Everyone is laying into Boeing for these recent United incidents, but every single one really points to horrendous maintenance at United. Once Boeing delivers a plane the airplane is responsible to maintain it, and in these cases it seems to me that the failure is at United, not Boeing.
Remember, United is the company that went DEI crazy in 2020, and has been hiring solely on skin color since.
Well if you’re going to put the “B” team on anything, wheels and landing gear are better than engines and wings. Or cabin pressure and oxygen.
Note to self: don’t fly United and try to avoid United hubs.
I think it’s fair to still rail on Boeing too.
Of course United CEO Scott Kirby is on video performing as a drag queen. I have learned that the former CEO of Walmart, the ever toxic, Rosilind Brewer has recently joined the United Board of Directors. Brewer has poisoned multiple Fortune 500 companies as an executive or board member, including Lockheed Martin with her drive for DEI programs.
None of these things indicate that United Airlines has their eye on technical or operational factors.
The blown out door plug is Boeing’s fault. So far Boeing is doing a horrible job restoring confidence.
This is Boeing’s Bud Light moment.
“US official says Boeing hasn’t turned over records about work on the panel that blew off a jetliner”
“Boeing has refused to tell investigators who worked on the door plug that later blew off a jetliner during flight in January, the NTSB said.”
https://www.king5.com/article/news/nation-world/us-official-boeing-hasnt-turned-over-records-work-panel-blew-off-jetliner/281-98876292-f231-43fd-a9b0-750d34a35668
Not piling on, but…
https://www.aol.com/news/united-airlines-plane-diverted-l-192508715.html
As Robert suggests, “every single [incident] really points to horrendous maintenance at United.”
With all of the publicity about such lapses, it would seem to me that word would quickly enough get out — going viral, becoming a meme, and a punch line on late night TV — and even the dimmest executives at United would eventually understand that DEI isn’t working for them. Or not, and they will lose their customer base and run the company into the ground (getting huge bonuses all the while).
Milt—allow me to edit:
……and they will
losekill their customersbase andby running theircompanyairplanes into the ground.