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."
Huh… Who could have seen that as a likely scenario?
Where’s all the commenters who kept telling me that Starliner was “perfectly fine” and the extra time on station was ONLY because the trunk doesn’t come back so they wanted further testing? That there was never an issue with them using it for return. That the thruster issue was already fixed before they docked to the station and wouldn’t happen again. That even suggesting that a Dragon capsule being sent for their return instead was ridiculous.
I suggested that even if NASA had not asked for it, that it would be prudent for SpaceX to have a Dragon prepared and ready for a recovery flight. Seems that’s probably why NASA paid SpaceX unexpectedly for something related to emergency response, even if they deny it being directly related. Having SpaceX put together a generic response option, means they can say it’s not directly related, even if they fully intend it for that use.
prolly the dragon thing is just to assure safety in the very unlikely case of an emergency, and they just tried to hide it because the general media really likes latching onto the boeing gate train without the knowledge of the entire situation that qualified journalists like eric has.
honestly i feel like they should’ve just designed one of the capsules to have the passive international docking adapter as well as the active they already have, so they can rescue people from the other capsule.