I'm still betting on this as the best bet! 🪂

 

The only chance may be to request that the FGC (Feline Galactic Council) send a rescue ship to the ISS, to bring those guys home. 

The supreme feline leader will require payment of course, in the form of six tons of Dreamies.

 

By the way, the advert below is no exaggeration, they love the things. 

 

 

Edited August 6, 20241 yr by martin-w

I read this morning that the next crew mission to the ISS has been put back. It's suggested that Dragon may instead visit the ISS with just two onboard to make way for the Starliners crew to return home.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2024/08/07/live-coverage-nasa-to-discuss-iss-schedule-shuffle-amid-spacex-crew-9-launch-delay-boeing-starliner-questions/

Latest claim is that Starliner can't autonomously un-dock as the automated software was removed to avoid straing the computer. So somebody has to be onboard to hit the button. 🙄

The software was removed to avoid straining the computer?

That sounds exceedingly odd…

Yeah, they've just said in the operations update that if the crew come back on Dragon, Starliner can undock autonomously but they need to input the parameters first. The crew need to essentially go back two years in time and resurrect the software parameters so it can undock autonomousy, uncrewed. Could take weeks. 

It could still be Dragon or Starliner that brings the crew home.

But and Suni might be stuck till Feb 2025. 

Edited August 7, 20241 yr by martin-w

Feb 2025 would be Dragon Crew 9. In which case two of the crew wouldn't get a seat to allow Butch and Suni a ride home. 

Edited August 7, 20241 yr by martin-w

On 8/5/2024 at 3:51 AM, martin-w said:

NASA have already said that they are in the position of having Dragon as a backup. My guess is they would send Dragon up remotely (as has been done many times) and bring them home. 

If I'm wrong I'll grant you all a free, much sought after, gold cat point. 

The Starliner crew is not trained to operate the Dragon capsule. If they come back that way, there will need to be at least two regular Dragon crew aboard to pilot the re-entry.

How it would work, explained here...

 

 

9 hours ago, JRBarrett said:

The Starliner crew is not trained to operate the Dragon capsule. If they come back that way, there will need to be at least two regular Dragon crew aboard to pilot the re-entry.

 

This is how I understand it.

Currently there are two capsules at the ISS, crew 8 Dragon and Starliner. If they chose the SpaceX option, then Starliner will undock and return to Earth autonomously. 

Crew 9 Dragon will dock. So crew 8 Dragon and crew 9 Dragon will be occupying the two docking ports. Crew 9 Dragon will only have two astronauts onboard, and just ballast for the other two seats. 

Sunita and Butch will join the two crew 9 astronauts and become the new long stay crew. Crew 8 will return in their Dragon.

Sunita and Butch and the two crew 9 astronauts will return at the end of the crew 9 stay in the crew 9 Dragon. 

 

Edited August 8, 20241 yr by martin-w

4 hours ago, fenharxz said:

how would it be steered remotely to get it to de-orbit and come down safely？

 

The autonomous software is still onboard Starliner, but is two years out of date, so the astronauts would need to update the software and enter new parameters. Then the autonomous reentry could be done.  If there's a thruster issue on the way down, I guess it's simply lost and burns up in the atmosphere. 

The decision as to whether Starliner will come back with crew onboard, or if the SpaceX option will be adopted, should be made in around one weeks time. The question is what it will mean for the Starliner program if it can't bring its crew back. Will NASA abandon Starliner? 

Edited August 8, 20241 yr by martin-w

5 hours ago, martin-w said:

The question is what it will mean for the Starliner program if it can't bring its crew back. Will NASA abandon Starliner? 

It will mean yet another high powered meeting between the head of the Manned space programme, the head of Boeing’s space programme, the head of the Digging big holes in the ground programme and the head of the Filling the holes with big bags of cash programme.

You’ve just got to admire the patience and fortitude of the American taxpayer…

…would there not be a third capsule also docked at the Space station through all this perchance?

19 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

would there not be a third capsule also docked at the Space station through all this perchance?

 

There's plenty of ships there. As for capable of carrying people, the only other is the Soyuz crew vehicle. And we've discussed why they aren't keen on that option.

There is another option, and that's for Suni and Butch to occupy the cargo pallet on crew 8's Dragon. 

 

https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-visiting-vehicles/#:~:text=Expedition 71,87 and 88 resupply ships.

 

Quote

 

Aug. 6, 2024: International Space Station Configuration. Six spaceships are parked at the space station including Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft, the Northrop Grumman resupply ship, the Soyuz MS-25 crew ship, and the Progress 87 and 88 resupply ships.

NASA

 

 

Edited August 8, 20241 yr by martin-w

Zillions of people would love to be on the station for 8 days. 8 months?  Not so much.