The first crewed voyage of Boeing's Starliner was supposed to last around a week, but the high-stakes mission is still in limbo eight weeks after launch.

The first crewed voyage of Boeing’s Starliner was supposed to last around a week, but the high-stakes mission is still in limbo eight weeks after launch.

Their high-stakes mission was supposed to last about a week — but 56 days later, two NASA astronauts are still aboard the International Space Station, waiting as teams on the ground try to figure out how to bring them home safely in the Boeing spaceship they rode to orbit.

The beleaguered Starliner capsule has two problems: its propulsion system is leaking helium and five of its thrusters malfunctioned as it was docking with the space station. Mission managers were aware of the leaks before the vehicle lifted off but had said they were unlikely to affect the flight or the astronauts’ safety.

  • @dogslayeggs
    12•1 month ago

    Mission Manager is a technical role, not a managerial position. They might also be people managers, but the role is about managing the mission. And even if they are also people managers, they had to be engineers or scientists first to start working at NASA.

    And I think they can’t simply scuttle the ship. I read they need humans in the ship to get it to properly disconnect from the station.

    • AnIndefiniteArticle
      1•1 month ago

      they had to be engineers or scientists first to start working at NASA

      NASA actually employs a very large number of people who are neither scientists nor engineers. Going to space requires a very diverse workforce.

      Also, it’s not “Mission Manager”, it’s “Mission Operations Manager”.

      You’re right that someone doesn’t end up as the MOM of a mission without experience in the technical roles that they are managing.

      • @dogslayeggs
        3•1 month ago

        NASA actually employs a very large number of people who are neither scientists nor engineers. Going to space requires a very diverse workforce.

        Thanks for stating the obvious. I pretty clearly meant working at NASA in a technical role where one could move up to managing engineers/scientists. You don’t move from Human Resources or Legal or Janitor or Machinist or Admin Assistant or Graphic Designer or whatever to Mission Ops Manager or to a role people managing engineers/scientists (this COULD happen but would be incredibly rare).

        As far as correcting me on Mission Operations Manager, I have no clue what their title is. I was only responding to the actual article saying “Mission managers were aware of the leaks.”