“We are letting the data drive our decision."

  • Nighed@feddit.uk
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    5 months ago

    Do they have enough seats up there without starliner to get everyone down?

    I assume they could just stay up there until another Dragon/Soyuz launch if they don’t trust starliner?

    • zhunk@beehaw.org
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      5 months ago

      Maybe? Soyuz is too cramped, but Dragon might be able to fit extra people. A few years ago a NASA astronaut flew up on a leaky Soyuz, so they looked at using Dragon as a lifeboat:

      https://www.space.com/nasa-spacex-dragon-rescue-spacecraft-soyuz-leak

      Dragon was drawn up to fit 7 people, with 3 seats on the bottom and 4 on top. They ended up changing the seat angles for reentry, so now they only have 4.

      Starliner is still their emergency ride home in case a real alarm goes off, but they want to study the leak issue as much as possible before they separate their service module, which burns up during reentry.