Just out of curiosity, has any astronaut or cosmonaut ever launched in one spaceship and returned in another?

Of course.

Here’s one.  I believe there were several more.

“437 days
Polyakov completed his second flight into space in 1994–1995, spending 437 days in space between launching on Soyuz TM-18 and landing with TM-20, setting the record for the longest time continuously spent in space by an individual.”

Edit to add-

astronaut Frank Rubio
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio holds the single spaceflight record at 371 days, followed closely by Mark Vande Hei and Scott Kelly.

Happened as recently as last year when the Russians had to send a replacement soyuz to the ISS.

https://www.space.com/soyuz-ms23-parking-spot-swap-at-space-station

Starliner Waits At ISS For Thruster Testing

"The Starliner crew capsule will hurry up and wait at the ISS for several more weeks while officials conduct Earthside thruster testing in White Sands, NM. Only then will astronauts Butch Willmore and Sunita Williams receive the green light to complete the vehicle’s shakedown cruise and return to Earth.

Boeing and NASA officials insisted that Starliner is in fine condition, despite helium leaks and anomalous thruster behavior. “We understand these issues for a safe return,” Boeing program manager Mark Nappi told reporters Friday. “We don’t understand them enough to fix them permanently.”

Certifying this vehicle for its six contractual flights is the point of this mission, so the quest for a permanent fix makes sense, but officials couldn’t quite explain why the vehicle needed to remain on station until the ground test campaign’s completion, turning the 10-day flight into a multi-week (or multi-month) stay.

Better safe than sorry: NASA commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said “engineering teams convinced the management teams, on both the Boeing and NASA sides, that it was wise to go do a test” while astronauts were safe on station. Then, after replicating various flight scenarios in a vacuum chamber, the engineers can tear apart the propulsion units to assess them directly.

While Nappi at first said there was little that could be changed about Starliner on station, Stich said data from the tests could lead engineers to avoid using certain thrusters or change the firing sequences during undocking and the deorbit burn."

I'm not completely following their stated logic.  They want to perform these tests because the module will not be returning to Earth.....but all the tests are being performed in a test lab on Earth.....maybe I'm missing something though.

If you thought it was safe but you lose the hardware coming back, you'd just come back and then do more tests later to replicate the actual mission data.

If you think there's a chance something is going to go catastrophically bad, you keep on testing and testing until you're out of time on making a decision.

The fact that Boeing could not fix the issues after a previous flight and are guessing that new procedures should work is BS.  Do whatever tests you want while Butch is there but make plans to have them come home on a Crew Dragon.

The "space walk" that seemed to delay Starliner testing may occur today.  We will see if they come up with another excuse.



Technical failures leave Starliner crew 'not stranded' on ISS indefinitely

More gloom and doom articles:

NASA says that the astronauts sent to the International Space Station aboard Boeing's malfunctioning Starliner spacecraft are "not stranded in space." However, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams may be staying in orbit for a very long time.

"Not stranded" is one of those phrases that can be stretched to cover a lot of situations. You can take the car to the local supermarket and if it breaks down, you aren't stranded because you can walk home in 15 minutes. On the other hand, if you're on a cross-country trip and throw a piston rod in some backwater mountain town, you aren't technically stranded because you could get home somehow, but, in practical terms, you're probably spending an indefinite amount of time in a cheap motel.

Boeing's Starliner can stay in space beyond 45-day limit, NASA says

"Boeing's Starliner capsule is performing well enough on its first-ever astronaut mission that it will likely be able to stay in orbit beyond the initially envisioned 45-day limit, NASA says.

Starliner, which launched on June 5, is docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on an indefinite mission extension. The spacecraft is in good shape and rated to leave the ISS in case of emergency. But both NASA and Boeing are trying to understand why some of Starliner's reaction control system (RCS) thrusters experienced issues in the leadup to docking with the ISS on June 6, and why several helium leaks have sprung up in the capsule. As such, Starliner will stay in space until at least later in the summer as testing and analyses continue. For example, a new round of thruster tests on the ground will begin soon, perhaps as early as today (July 2).

Testing on June 15 in orbit was unable to find the root cause of the issues, although agency officials stressed on Friday (June 28) that progress has been made: the helium leaks have stabilized, and all but one of the errant thrusters is rated for use to come back to Earth. (Starliner has 28 thrusters altogether in its RCS; five were misbehaving, and of those five, only one will be taken offline during undocking.)

Since the RCS is in Starliner's service module, which will be jettisoned before entry, descent and landing, the extra time in orbit will let teams take their time in understanding how to proceed. This will be crucial for any service module design changes that will be needed for future, six-month ISS rotation missions that Starliner performs as soon as 2025. But to give ground teams time for testing, NASA says Starliner needs to stay docked for more than 45 days, which was the initial outside limit for this mission. The good news is the spacecraft looks good to go for perhaps double that amount of time — or more.

"We talked about a 45-day limit, limited by the crew module batteries on Starliner, and we're in the process of updating that limit," Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, told reporters during the Friday teleconference.

"We've been looking at those batteries and their performance on orbit. They're getting recharged by station, and that risk hasn't really changed. So the risk for the next 45 days is essentially the same as the first 45 days," he said."

Talk about trying to put a positive spin on the story

Nothing to see here, just finishing development of a spacecraft while in space and with human lives involved.

That's their job. To say that everything is fine right up until we have crispy astronauts on live TV.

Too soon?

Norman Thagard launched on a Soyuz to the Mir space station and then came home on Atlantis as part of STS-71

Is this the most transparent they have been about docking problems?…:
“But both NASA and Boeing are trying to understand why some of Starliner's reaction control system (RCS) thrusters experienced issues in the leadup to docking with the ISS on June 6, and why several helium leaks have sprung up in the capsule”

So there are 5 helium leaks and one is significantly larger than the others.  
There are 5 malfunctioning thrusters and only one is “not rated for the return trip”.  

That’s quite a coincidence that the number and severity of helium leaks matches the number and severity of malfunctioning thrusters.

I saw a YouTube video that the 2 July 2024 spacewalk was delayed until late July.  I have not seen an official comment on it nor whether that means an impact to RCS testing.

Attached File

Not really.
From what I've heard the He manifolds legs are:
T1
P1
P2

The RCS thrusters that acted up are:
B1A3 (that's the one deselected for low chamber pressure)
B2A2 *
S1A2 *
S2A2 *
T2A2 *
*back up with good chamber pressures after docked hot firing.

There are no thrusters that went down in the Port dog house while there is a couple manifolds with a He leak in there.

Current status is not clear other than they should be testing.  That takes as long as it takes and they may test more based upon those results.

Meanwhile on Earth I have cut down three dead trees since they launched.  Will I get them cut up and the area cleaned up before they return to Earth?

Probably, they can't stay up there forever though. They have to figure something out by 2030.

At that point, they can just shift over to the axiom module.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_Orbital_Segment

I had joked a few weeks ago that Polaris Dawn would launch before starliner, but it's looking more and more likely that it will beat Starliner back to Earth.

Interesting timeline.  Polaris Dawn "may" launch by the end of July.  Unknown time in orbit but I will guess a maximum of a week.

We could get super silly with a scenario where a fully developed SpaceX Starship launches out of Canaveral. Flies up to the station, swallows the capsule. Flying the whole shebang back to Earth that way.

Yeah, the no earlier date of Jul 31 could slip again (as that's right by the forecast date of starship flt 5), but Boeing doesn't seem to be in any hurry getting starliner back.

https://polarisprogram.com/dawn/

I couldn't help but make this mashup image after seeing it in my head:
Attached File

And now I’m imagining Elon in mission control petting a white cat saying, “you’re mine now!”

NASA, Boeing Provide Next Update on Space Station Crew Flight Test

Leadership from NASA and Boeing will participate in a media briefing at 12:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, July 10, to discuss the agency’s Crew Flight Test at the International Space Station.

Audio of the media teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website:

https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

Participants include:

   Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
   Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, Commercial Crew Program, Boeing

Media interested in participating must contact the newsroom at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no later than one hour prior to the start of the call at [email protected]. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.

I did not watch the media briefing.  Here is an excerpt from one media source:

"NASA provided an update on the Boeing Starliner and its crew via telecast Wednesday afternoon, addressing delays that have turned a week-long trip into a 35-day and counting stay. According to the organization, Wilmore and Williams may stay at the International Space Station (ISS) until later in the summer.

Scientists and engineers are working through testing to better understand and resolve issues that occurred during Starliner's launch and flight last month, including some misfiring thrusters and helium leaks. The testing is expected to conclude by the end of the week.

"I think we're really working to try to follow the data and see when's the earliest that we could target for undocking and landing," said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program. "I think some of the data suggest optimistically maybe it's by the end of July but we'll just follow the data each step at a time and at the right time figure out when the right undock opportunity is."

Source

It's dead Jim

Is this the first admission that they had actual misfires of the RCS thrusters?  WTF, I can’t believe they would consider sending our astronauts back in that POS.

This is the first I’ve noticed the plural - they had admitted to one misfiring thruster already (on the service module).

What a complete joke Boeing has become.  I bet SpaceX has to go rescue them.

I must be on everyone's ignore list. I provided the ID numbers and current status of the thrusters they are talking about on this very page

Today's media teleconference from the crew



And today's teleconference with NASA and Boeing



Most of these retard "journalists" should be reporting on pregnant pandas at the fucking zoo instead of calling in on this.

I thought they were just shut down.  I didn't realize they misfired during a burn.  That can cause the capsule to be uncontrollable, tumble, etc.  They most likely were relieved to dock.

Misfired is the journalist words.

Steve has been providing a lot of technical details in these teleconference meetings.

The computer deselected 5 aft firing RCS thrusters for low chamber pressure. This was because of limit values assigned to them in the software. Manual firing of them has improved the performance on 4 of the 5 and they were back up and running before docking was attempted. The 5th is deselected for the remainder of the flight, it didn't come back.

The vehicle has 8 aft firing RCS thrusters used for minor maneuvering and orientation corrections. There are also 12 aft firing OMAC thrusters. They are much larger, different design and have been working fine.

In the crew teleconference video I linked a couple posts up Butch talks about the maneuvering stability of the ship.

So why drag the mission out so long? With what's publicly being admitted to, what risk are they mitigating by waiting?

I can't speak for them and I only know what they have released during these telecons.

My own opinion with the information provided is there is no more risk waiting for an opportune time vs coming back now.

There was EVA schedule conflicts which went tit's up and now they got a crew out trying to mimic and learn what's going on in the test chambers.

I get it, it can look like stalling if you're looking for a reason to not trust what's going on. But the guy that had the ship in manual control during free flight was holding position just fine while the console guys were hot firing thrusters on the ship remotely before they even docked. They had since performed more hotfire tests while docked and the 4 RCS thrusters performance improved. Butch has confidence in the vehicle... said so today...

Confidence in the vehicle, that's good to hear I suppose.

Been reading this lately.

Attached File


Its been very interesting, lots of pretty pictures. Kinda thin on details on DOD missions though for obvious reasons.

Rent a forestry mulcher. Just because.

Kharn

Flip it around - it's not that I'm looking for a reason not to trust what's going on. It's that the major stakeholders have every reason to want less bad press, and not more. Boeing is absolutely desperate right now not to have another negative story about a product of theirs pop up on the newsfeed every other day until infinity. NASA has motivation to get the mission over so the press stops asking questions over their procurement and safety protocols. From the viewpoint of absolutely everything besides crew safety, the ship needed to be on the ground weeks ago.

But it's not. Which tells us something about the decisions we aren't privy to and the information we don't have.

So knowing that NASA and Boeing are both motivated in parallel directions, and that both are being negatively harmed by every additional day in space, the question a neutral observer would have to ask from the outside is whether or not there's internal risk-related modeling that's causing management to fret and keep kicking the can to the right, or something else going on.

NASA Says No Plan to Use SpaceX to Rescue Boeing Starliner Astronauts

"“We’re taking time to build confidence in the spacecraft to understand the thruster performance,” Steve Stich, the manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, said during a second news conference, this one on Earth, on Wednesday. “What we’re doing is not unusual for a new spacecraft.”

Mr. Stich said that optimistically, Starliner, with Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore aboard, would return by the end of July.

“There’s really been no discussion with sending another Dragon to rescue the Starliner crew,” Mr. Stich said."

At this point, anyone who thinks NASA and Boeing feel this thing is safe is delusional.

Seems like something you do before you put people inside it.

Never seen that one, I'll have to get a copy. You make it out this way again and we'll have to get together and I'll tell you some stories that ain't in that book.

Update on what happens first...Starliner returns or I get three trees cleaned up.  Two nights ago I got the first felled tree cleaned up.    That means trunk blocked, limbs cut up or removed to slash facility and ground cleaned of branch material.  It was about 55-60 feet tall. trunk diameter at cutting point TBS inches and it has been dead several years.

I am making progress on the other two trees and ideally will get the smaller of those two finished this week.

The last one is a lot more work than the other two so I will use the NASA approach.  Cut and clean up and bit.  Evaluate my progress.  Cut and clean more until the area is clean and all blocked wood is in a place to further dry.

I doubt even Boeing would bet on them winning that race (at least in private)

"Nasa has now said the astronauts may have to stay put until the next scheduled crew switchover in August – potentially on another ship."

Source



"“Some of the data suggests optimistically, maybe it’s by the end of July, but we’ll just follow the data each step at a time,” Steve Stich, Nasa’s commercial crew program manager, said at a lunchtime press conference.

“We’re going to work methodically through our processes, including a return flight readiness review with the agency, before we get the go to proceed towards undocking and landing. This is a very standard process.”

He added that a routine ISS crew rotation in mid-August was “kind of a back end” to the mission to avoid overcrowding in orbit.

“Obviously, a few days before that launch opportunity we would need to get Butch and Suni home on Starliner,” he said."

Source

Starliner is in the yard on blocks. They need to fly up a cur dog to lay on top of it.