Flying Boeing’s Starliner capsule
Link here. The article provides some nice details about the way the spacecraft will operate (mostly by computer), with the astronauts monitoring and capable of taking over at any point.
Unlike Dragon, the control panel has no touchscreens. According to astronaut Chris Ferguson, the design was “borrowed a little bit from Orion, and it’s kind of the way some of the 5th generation military planes interact with pilots.” Not as fancy, but maybe more practical. I still have my doubts about the ability of astronauts to accurately press a touchscreen during the vibrations of launch.
There is something else, however, about this article that bugs me. It reads too much like an SLS update, filled with glowing reports that, in the case of SLS, are designed to disguise a program that is not going to meet its schedule. This is pure speculation based on nothing but instinct, but it is an impression I have and do not like.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
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Link here. The article provides some nice details about the way the spacecraft will operate (mostly by computer), with the astronauts monitoring and capable of taking over at any point.
Unlike Dragon, the control panel has no touchscreens. According to astronaut Chris Ferguson, the design was “borrowed a little bit from Orion, and it’s kind of the way some of the 5th generation military planes interact with pilots.” Not as fancy, but maybe more practical. I still have my doubts about the ability of astronauts to accurately press a touchscreen during the vibrations of launch.
There is something else, however, about this article that bugs me. It reads too much like an SLS update, filled with glowing reports that, in the case of SLS, are designed to disguise a program that is not going to meet its schedule. This is pure speculation based on nothing but instinct, but it is an impression I have and do not like.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. 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.
Interesting that their priority “is to get the Crew Flight Test vehicle, spacecraft number 2, out the door” so that it can start its final vibration, pressure and acceptance testing in El Segundo, then shift work to the Orbital Flight Test vehicle “which does not have to go through the same procedures prior to its uncrewed test flight”.
If Boeing doesn’t run into too many unexpected problems, they might be in a position to fly those two missions in quicker succession than SpaceX. SpaceX’s Dragon 2 which will fly their DM1 uncrewed mission in November, returning to a splashdown in December, must be refurbished in time for its In Flight Abort test in March, in advance of the DM2 crewed mission in April. A recent Teslarati article said that refurbishment of cargo Dragons takes a lot longer than that. I suspect that SpaceX will make it happen in time, but that refurbishment may be the gating factor for an April crewed flight.
It seems crewed spacecraft have come full circle (helix). From ‘Spam-in-a-can’ (Mercury) to crew-operated (Shuttle), back to automated capsules. The next-gen spacecraft look a lot like modern airliners: they can be flown, but the operators (airlines) would much prefer the computer do the flying.
Kirk wrote: “A recent Teslarati article said that refurbishment of cargo Dragons takes a lot longer than that.”
Since the Flight Abort test does not go to orbit, it may not need a full refurbishment, thus it may be available sooner than would otherwise be expected.
Blair Ivey wrote: “It seems crewed spacecraft have come full circle (helix). From ‘Spam-in-a-can’ (Mercury) to crew-operated (Shuttle), back to automated capsules.”
I suspect that the capsule design is due to the necessity to get CCDev flying sooner rather than later. Less development work was needed.
I hope that Sierra Nevada’s spaceplane paradigm becomes the standard in the next decade. On the other hand, SN’s spaceplane may also be largely automated.