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Safety panel says NASA should have taken Starliner incident more seriously

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/12/safety-panel-says-nasa-should-have-taken-starliner-incident-more-seriously/
supersquirrel @sopuli.xyz - 18hr

A few weeks into the Starliner test flight last year, the manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, Steve Stich, told reporters the agency’s plan was “to continue to return [the astronauts] on Starliner and return them home at the right time.” Mark Nappi, then Boeing’s Starliner program manager, regularly appeared to downplay the seriousness of the thruster issues during press conferences throughout Starliner’s nearly three-month mission.

“Specifically, there’s a significant difference, philosophically, between we will work toward proving the Starliner is safe for crew return, versus a philosophy of Starliner is no-go for return, and the primary path is on an alternate vehicle, such as Dragon or Soyuz, unless and until we learn how to ensure the on-orbit failures won’t recur on entry with the Starliner,” Precourt said.

Boeing is a dumpsterfire lol

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burble @lemmy.dbzer0.com - 17hr

An absolute clown show. If these psychopaths can't understand the gravity of their actions, then they need to be making decisions while holding framed pictures of the astronauts and sitting in the rooms with their families.

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deadbeef79000 @lemmy.nz - 12hr

I suppose it's probably because the people responsible for Challenger have all retired without passing on the lesson to the next generation.

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burble @lemmy.dbzer0.com - 5hr

And management said those requirements and processes took too long and cost too much money

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deadbeef79000 @lemmy.nz - 5hr

Quite. I did imply that those responsible actually learned the lesson (to pass on). I doubt that everyone learned it.

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