One informed source said it was greater than a 50-50 chance that the crew would come back on Dragon. Another source said it was significantly more likely than not they would. To be clear, NASA has not made a final decision. This probably will not happen until at least next week. It is likely that Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator, will make the call.

Asked if it was now more likely than not that Starliner's crew would return on Dragon, NASA spokesperson Josh Finch told Ars on Thursday evening, " NASA is evaluating all options for the return of agency astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station as safely as possible. No decisions have been made and the agency will continue to provide updates on its planning."

Mark Albrecht joins me to talk about the state and future of space policy in a very dynamic Presidential election year. He shares some stories from the past, talks about his experience in presidential transitions and on the National Space Council, and ruminates on what we may see in November and beyond.

Full send lol

Seems the folks at ULA have decided to be complete dicks

Welcome everyone!

| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2024-07-30 10:45 | |

|

| | Scheduled for (local) | 2024-07-30 06:45 (EDT) | | Launch site | SLC-41, Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA. | | Launch vehicle | Atlas V 551 | | Launch provider | United Launch Alliance (ULA) | | Customer | United States Space Force | | Payload | USSF-51 | | Mission success criteria | Successful launch and deployment of payload into desired orbit |

Livestreams

| Stream | Link | |

|

| | ULA | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhfwTfUseVw | | NASASpaceflight | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWQNxvCC_Y0 | | Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkt5kqDyBXE | | Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SntfDzw4Ml8 | | The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX0qE7jjO-Q |

Launch statistics

☑️ 2nd Atlas V mission of 2024

☑️ 4th ULA mission of 2024

☑️ 101st Atlas V mission overall

☑️ 162nd ULA mission overall

Mission Details 🚀

• ULA mission page
• NextSpaceflight page

USSF-51 is a classified mission for the United States Space Force.

Previous ULA launch: Starliner CFT

Next ULA launch: [Vulcan Cert-2]

The astronauts who rode Boeing's Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station last month still don't know when they will return to Earth.

The problems are twofold. The spacecraft's reaction control thrusters overheated, and some of them shut off as Starliner approached the space station June 6. A separate, although perhaps related, problem involves helium leaks in the craft's propulsion system.

On Thursday, NASA and Boeing managers said they still plan to bring Wilmore and Williams home on the Starliner spacecraft. In the last few weeks, ground teams completed testing of a thruster on a test stand at White Sands, New Mexico. This weekend, Boeing and NASA plan to fire the spacecraft's thrusters in orbit to check their performance while docked at the space station.

The problems have led to speculation that NASA might decide to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. There's one Crew Dragon currently docked at the station, and another one is slated to launch with a fresh crew next month. Steve Stich, manager of NASA's commercial crew program, said the agency has looked at backup plans to bring the Starliner crew home on a SpaceX capsule, but the main focus is still to have the astronauts fly home aboard Starliner.

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/958