NASA Ageism - Expendable Oldies?

I'm watching the Starliner debacle with interest. Here we have another flawed Boeing product, now seemingly stuck attached to the International Space Station with several Helium leaks and NASA seemingly unable to come up with a plan of what to do with it and more importantly what to do with it's Astronaut Crew.

Sunita "Suni" Williams (58) and Barry "Butch" Wilmore (61) are currently stranded on the International Space Station awaiting a decision from NASA as to how they return to Earth.

You'd think it would be straightforward: hop in the Boeing Starliner and return to Earth. 

But it isn't that simple. The Starliner has been plagued with problems on previous missions to the ISS, the first failing to get there after a software error. The second mission just about got to the ISS by the skin of it's teeth. There were issues with thrusters failing to operate.

Now on it's third mission, there are reported to be leaks of Helium from the Spacecraft. I say leaks because so far at least five separate leaks have been detected as reported in the press. 

Helium is important because it is used to pressurise the spacecraft's propulsion system. Without it the craft's thrusters don't work. Without thrusters it can't manoeuvre to orient itself for re-entry. Without the ability to orient itself correctly the spacecraft burns up on re-entry along with it's crew.

NASA I assume are now calculating the risk of releasing the craft from the ISS and whether the Helium will run out before it can do it's important manoeuvres and safely return the craft and crew to Earth. 

I also assume that to mitigate Helium loss, NASA are calculating a new, shorter return trajectory in order to reduce the return time.

It's now a numbers game as to whether NASA take the risk or call it quits and returns the craft to Earth without a crew, or they pu8t meatbags aboard the flawed capsule and pray.

I suspect there is a real argument within NASA now between the risk-averse safety guys and the face saving PR departments of NASA and Boeing. 

Let's be honest, PR should not win. Safety should always be a priority.

But here's the rub: is the age of the crew a factor here? First off, they are older people, possibly because there are no younger Astronauts? Or is this another ageist thing where the older Astronauts are expendable? 

Either way, if it's taken over a week to come to a conclusion, I think the battle within NASA is too close to call and safety should win out. Leave the Astronauts on the ISS, get SpaceX to bring them back and let the Starliner come home in Autonomous mode. 

If it makes it back, Boeing's PR can make a fuss about how robust their spacecraft is and NASA are pussies for not trusting it. 

Either way NASA can say they erred on the side of caution.

If it burns up NASA can say they did the right thing and saved two lives. 

But come on guys, make a decision and make the right (only) one. 

The Titan Submarine Found in Pieces. Lessons Need to be Learned including in Space.

 Well, it looks like the Titan submarine experienced a catastrophic hull failure. 

The US coastguard yesterday announced that the two titanium domes had been spotted by a remotely operated vehicle. 

The salient part missing from their statements was about the status of the bit in between: the carbon fibre tube holding the occupants of the sub.

Other commentators have stated the sub jettisoned ballast before the failure, so they may have known that there were issues before the final failure happened. But these are unconfirmed at this moment. It could be the sub failed and as that failure occurred the sub dropped ballast as it was designed to in an emergency.

I hope there is now a full investigation and proper experts start to examine the viability of the construction of this sub. Too many armchair experts online will muddy the waters, we need definitive information. Facts that can be used to inform others that may be tempted to use composites for sub hull construction in the future.

A lot of chatter on the internet is about how pressure vessels that withstand pressure from inside can be built out of carbon fibre, but not vessels that resist pressure from outside, citing that CF is stronger in tension than it is in compression. But I don't have the experience to comment on that.

All I can say is the sub was experimental. It was an experiment that cost lives. Hopefully any such innovations will be properly tested in future before humans are committed to be passengers.

Which brings me to space.

Currently NASA has the Starliner project, built by Boeing to take astronauts to the International Space Station.

On it's first attempt Starliner failed to make it because of software errors. The second attempt made it to the ISS, but there were several systems failures. The first prevented it lifting off on time and then when it did eventually lift off, there were issues with temperature control inside the craft and issues with thrusters, in one case a third redundant thruster had to fire when the first two failed.

To me that's getting there by the skin of your teeth. Hardly the ultra-safe system that is required for safe human flight in space.

I just wonder what sort of waiver NASA will make the first Starliner crew sign?