Boeing’s Starliner lands on Earth – without its astronauts
Boeing’s Starliner lands on Earth – without its astronauts
www.theguardian.com
Boeing’s Starliner lands on Earth – without its astronauts
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft landed in a New Mexico desert late on Friday, months after its original departure date and without the two astronauts it carried when it launched in early June.
Starliner returned to Earth seemingly without a hitch, a Nasa live stream showed, nailing the critical final phase of its mission.
The spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere around 11pm ET at orbital speeds of roughly 27,400km/h (17,025mph). About 45 minutes later, it deployed a series of parachutes to slow its descent and inflated a set of airbags moments before touching down at the White Sands Space Harbor, an arid desert in New Mexico.
Still was the right decision not to chance it.
But I bet the astronauts wish they'd been on it now.
Someone who's worked their entire life to not only become trained as an astronaut, but actually go on a space mission. What do you think they prefer? Going home today or staying another few months on an actual space station?
I think they'd prefer going home. The mission they came up for is long done, they may have important events in their life or their family's lives scheduled for after the planned return, and staying up for months increases the chances of long term damage to their bodies.
I imagine they're pretty bored by now.
0 gravity and living in an enclosed space take a huge toll on one physical and mental being, obviously they wanna go home today, but i bet they also wanna go home in one piece
That makes me wonder. What happens if an astronaut just...refuses to come back? They're up on the station and their mission is at its end. They broadcast to NASA. "Actually, I've decided not to come back. I live here now." How would NASA handle that situation?
and that could have potentially been what caused to crash and burn or burn and crash. choices choices.
anyhow... I'm thinking they want to be home right now, but maybe not riding on a boeing.