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by JumpCrisscross 769 days ago
> capsule isn't responsible for the booster's valve issues

But Boeing is responsible for putting it on an Atlas V. Why?! There are fewer than thirty of them left! Why aren’t they practicing on a modern stack?

I’ll eat my words if Starliner can rapidly transition to another booster. But given its track record in software alone, I’m incredibly sceptical.
3 comments
dylan604 769 days ago
Probably because Boeing is also part of ULA, so they have a vested interest in using their booster. Looks like "if it's a Boeing, I'm not going" isn't just for airplanes any more.
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richardwhiuk 769 days ago
If it's worth it, they'll transition to Vulcan. But given the timeline of the ISS, unclear their will be demand.
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lupusreal 769 days ago
Boeing leadership has blamed fixed-price contracts like the Commercial Crew Program for their inability to make a profit, so I doubt they'll be looking to get themselves into another. Starliner might continue to fly if they can bribe/blackmail the government into giving them an unlimited money tap (aka "cost plus") contract for more Starliner missions. Hopefully that doesn't happen, but time will tell.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/10/boeing-says-it-cant-ma...

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trothamel 769 days ago
Dissimilar Redundancy. Say the Falcon 9 suffers an in-flight failure. The last time that happened, there was a stand-down for quite some time, and I suspect that there would be a similar amount of time before people could be flown on it, even if I'd think Starlinks could resume right away.

Starliner/Atlas wouldn't be affected, and so ensure the US and our allies have access to the station without getting Russia involved.

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JumpCrisscross 769 days ago
> Starliner/Atlas wouldn't be affected

Every launch of the Atlas V has already been sold [1]. They can't make more because it uses the Russian RD-180 engine.

If the Falcons were grounded, we wouldn't have the capacity to replace them with Starliner + Atlas V.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/26/22641048/ula-boeing-lockh...

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lupusreal 769 days ago
Ignoring the issue of Atlas being EOL: At the rate Starliner is progressing, it would be faster to wait for SpaceX to fix whatever was ailing Falcon 9 than to wait for Starliner to be ready.
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kenny11 769 days ago
> have access to the station without getting Russia involved.

Except for the Russian engine on the Atlas V.

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