Riddy

Geeking out since '88

[Riddy @SpaceGeekRiddy]

@wendamus @danmccay Very true.

[Riddy @SpaceGeekRiddy]

@clubbertime @DJ_Bean @EmptyNettersPod I've heard this exact argument used to discuss the rise of the Panthers.

[Senator John Curtis @SenJohnCurtis]

Diplomacy and statesmanship seem to have been checked at the door of the Oval Office today. Ukraine is an ally in pursuit of free markets, free speech, and free people—Western values that align with our own. A win for Putin, on the other hand, does not. I am hopeful that our countries can get back to the table and advance the prospects of a just and lasting peace.

[POLITICO @politico]

Trump and Vance attacked Zelenskyy in a remarkable Oval Office exchange today.

“You’ve done enough talking. You’re not winning this,” Trump said, raising his voice. “You have a damn good chance of coming out okay because of us.” https://t.co/QtxVtx6gXZ

[Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 @AndrewYang]

They just wanted a closed border and cheaper eggs.

[International Association of Fire Fighters @IAFFofficial]

🚒 A monopoly of fire truck and ambulance manufacturing in the U.S. is driving costs higher, said @iaffpresident in the @nytimes.

“At the end of the day, absent competition, monopoly capitalism is a shakedown.” https://t.co/lEmnGoWTBl

[Utah Mammoth @utahmammoth]

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??????????????

[Edward A. Kelly @IAFFPresident]

.@Local22Philly fire fighters worked aggressively tonight to battle flames from a tragic jet crash. Their quick actions helped prevent further loss of life in a devastating situation.

My prayers are with the families and friends of those aboard the Medevac flight.

[Edward A. Kelly @IAFFPresident]

Search and rescue efforts are underway in the Potomac River, with @Local3217, @IAFF36, @IAFFlocal1619, and dozens of other firefighters engaged in dive operations. They’re doing everything they can to bring survivors to safety.

Our prayers are with everyone affected.

[Everyday Astronaut @Erdayastronaut]

This is SUCH a complicated topic and many people are voicing opinions with some basic facts missing. Please allow me a few minutes to explain this situation in depth:

Let's start at the beginning...

SpaceX and Boeing were hired in 2014 to provide commercial crew services to the ISS for NASA. SpaceX was the first to successfully fly and safely return crew with operational flights beginning in 2020.

Boeing had an unsuccessful test flight in 2019 which required a redo in 2022 which was considered successful despite a few thruster malfunctions, it safely flew the mission to and from the ISS.

It should be noted, that Boeing received nearly double the amount SpaceX did for the Commercial Crew Program, mostly for "timeline assurance" - ironic

This eventually led to the flight of Boeing's Starliner Crew Flight Test with Butch and Suni in June, 2024. Immediately once on orbit, the vehicle experienced thruster issues and small helium leaks which were more off-nominal than they would've liked.

The safest thing to do was to dock to the ISS where they could further test and figure out the exact issue and determine the safest thing to do next.

The ISS was their original destination and once on Station, the Crew was safe AND had work to do as highly trained NASA astronauts, station keeping, and doing research and science.

During this period, there technically wasn't a known, safe way to get Butch and Suni back, so NASA and SpaceX devised a way to have them return as the 5th and 6th crew on the Crew-8 Dragon, C206 Endeavour in the case of an emergency on station.

After a few months of testing, NASA decided the safest thing to do was to have the Boeing Starliner return uncrewed, which would free up that docking port to allow the Crew-9 SpaceX Dragon Capsule a place to dock.

So in September, the malfunctioning Starliner returned (safely), uncrewed, and for about two weeks the official way off the station in an emergency was by being the 5th and 6th crew inside the Crew-8 Dragon capsule, but then on September 29th, Crew-9 docked to the ISS.

THIS MEANS, THE SPACEX CREW DRAGON CAPSULE THAT IS DEEMED TO "RESCUE" / UN-"ABANDON" / "SAVE" BUTCH AND SUNI HAS ALREADY BEEN DOCKED TO THE ISS SINCE SEPTEMBER. People seem to be missing this point.

And here's where this all gets pretty complicated...

NASA / Roscosmos flew Crew-9 with only Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov so there would be two seats available to return Butch and Suni from the ISS. They even brought up two SpaceX space suits with them since the Boeing Starliner ones weren't compatible with Dragon.

Normally, the ISS crews do 6 month stays with overlapping "expeditions" where half the crew basically rotates out every three months. What it really means is, GENERALLY, you go up on one spacecraft, you come down on that same one.

And crewed spacecraft come up every 3 months, basically play a game of tag, and they swap with half the crew that's currently onboard. They alternate, US Commercial Crew and Russian Soyuz vehicles. Sometimes these schedules change, and sometimes missions have crew on much longer than 6 months, with the record and the safe timeframe being considered about one year.

So the plan has been to have Butch and Suni join Crew-9. This means they are part of Expedition 71, 72 AND 73 on the ISS. Basically they got to do an extra expedition, something that I think most professional astronauts might see as a good thing.

Since normally you don't have a crew leave the ISS until their replacements arrive, this means Crew-9 isn't slated to leave until Crew-10 arrives.

In December it was revealed that Crew-10 is targeting no earlier than March because the particular SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that was slated to be used for that mission is not yet ready because it is brand new and there was still fabrication, assembly, testing and final integration of the vehicle necessary before it flew.

This Crew Dragon, C213, is the fifth and likely final Dragon Capsule that will be built. So why are they waiting on a brand new spacecraft to launch Crew-10? Why aren't they just using one of the other 5 to fly Crew-10 sooner and get Butch and Suni home sooner?

Well, C207 Resilience flew Polaris Dawn and is modified for free flying and is docking-portless at the moment, and will be flying Fram-2 soon. C206 Endeavor is undergoing refurbishment as planned after its 5th flight. C212 Freedom is currently docked to the ISS and C210 is currently slated to fly Axiom-4.

So what options are there?

What if they really do say "just bring them home already!!!"... well it causes a bit of a mess.

First off, they would abandon their expedition 72 crew mate, Don Pettit, to be the only person onboard the US segment of the ISS. Leaving him alone to do all station keeping, leaving virtually no time to do science or research, he'd become a full time janitor / maintenance man until he was relieved of his duties.

It should be noted that when they increased crew size from a crew of 3 to a crew of 4, the amount of science that could be done nearly doubled, which goes to show just how much time and energy it takes to keep the station operational for a crew.

Another option is rush completion and certification of the C213 Dragon and fly Crew-10 earlier, which I think we all agree is a terrible option, and likely one SpaceX wouldn't sign off on, no matter how much pressure there is from up top.

Another option is to switch Crew-10 to fly on C210, which is also not great since the Crew has been training specifically to certify and test out C213 as part of their mission. Swapping two crews' hardware at this point would be fairly negligent too.

Lastly, the option is to just wait until Crew-10 arrives, swap the crews per usual and allow Butch and Suni to fly home on Crew-9's Dragon Capsule once Crew-10 is settled in and operating the station.

This is the option NASA, and ultimately SpaceX, chose. These are just plain and simple the facts of the situation, hopefully it helps you develop an informed and nuanced opinion on this complicated subject matter.

[Riddy @SpaceGeekRiddy]

@andypierucciUT Congrats, you'll be an asset on that committee.

[📸Trevor Mahlmann🚀 @TrevorMahlmann]

.@blueorigin’s New Glenn soars past the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse after clearing LC-36 and performing its pitch kick to head downrange.

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

Falcon 9 is vertical on pad 39A in Florida ahead of tonight's launch of the @fireflyspace Blue Ghost and @ispace_inc RESILIENCE lunar landers to the Moon in ~3.5 hours from now → https://t.co/0h1QaJCVyY

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

Starship's seventh flight test is targeted to launch Wednesday, January 15, with a 60-minute launch window opening at 4 p.m. CT.

The Starbase team is keeping a close eye on weather conditions → https://t.co/QNCSPTewLA

[Tim Urban @waitbutwhy]

Few of us have photos of our great-grandparents in their childhoods, and if we do, they're probably grainy images of stoic children. It's weird that 2100 people will be able to watch a million videos of their great-grandparents as young people doing and saying absolute dumb shit.

[Blue Origin @blueorigin]

We’re standing down on today’s launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window. We’re reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

There is no shame in not knowing.

It's Okay to say "I don't know."

[Utah DOT @UtahDOT]

You’ve heard of elf on the shelf but have you heard of getting out of the left lane?

[Riddy @SpaceGeekRiddy]

@danmccay I was against it's removal then, and I'll be against it now. It's a great guardrail against hyper-partisan legislation, especially in short periods (2 year cycles) of majorities.