ISS Gets Ready for New Commercial Crew Port

[HardOCP News]

It looks like Boeing and Space X are getting their own docking port on the ISS. It's amazing how far Space X has come in just the last few years. It seems like just yesterday they were blowing up every other time they tried to land their rockets, now they have a parking space on the International Space Station.

Space station and Commercial Crew managers wrapped up a spacewalk briefing Monday afternoon discussing the installation of a new International Docking Adapter at the end of the week. Spacewalkers Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins will begin the installation work Friday at 8:05 a.m. EDT to enable future crew vehicles from Boeing and SpaceX to dock in the future.

 

[Aireoth]

One step closer to my dream of going into space.

I for one am excited.

 

[Grahamkracka]

Space X is eventually going to run into problems as they keep ramping up. They have an incredibly high engineering turnover rate. All the new grads/entry level engineers want to work for them...then they get there and start working 80 hour weeks. Lots of super smart people, very light in practical experience.

 

[the-one1]

Space X is eventually going to run into problems as they keep ramping up. They have an incredibly high engineering turnover rate. All the new grads/entry level engineers want to work for them...then they get there and start working 80 hour weeks. Lots of super smart people, very light in practical experience.

I was thinking the same. Just like how successful NASA was/is, their ego will eventually get to them and someone will die from the same culture that plagued NASA.

 

[Dead Parrot]

Space X is going fairly slow compared to the pace NASA set during the moon race days. Remember, Apollo 8 was the first manned flight for the Saturn V stack and the 3rd overall flight for the system. It was the first manned mission to go to the moon. And there was no backup ship with them like they had on Apollo 13. Imagine some manager making that call today and keeping his/her job.

NASA got into trouble when they fell prey to pressures from Congress to 'Commercialize' space travel which led to poor choices on vehicle design and pressures to keep costs down.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

I was thinking the same. Just like how successful NASA was/is, their ego will eventually get to them and someone will die from the same culture that plagued NASA.

if you want to get shit done it's what you have to do otherwise people get comfortable where they are and the pace of innovation and progress slows down because they know they'll never leave. the insane pace NASA set during the 50's 60's and 70's technology wise can never really be matched in this day and age but spaceX is definitely trying their best to do it. yeah the turn over rate is pretty high but people will gladly suffer through the work schedule to get their foot in the door because without spaceX there's not that many opportunities out there for this kind of work. no one really leaves NASA or Boeing.

I was thinking the same. Just like how successful NASA was/is, their ego will eventually get to them and someone will die from the same culture that plagued NASA.

it's space, every single person that goes up there knows there's a chance they'll die only the peons on the ground think space travel is 100% safe.. maybe in a 1000 years it will be but it sure as hell isn't right now. NASA's watching them like a hawk though with the crew capsule segment but i have to say it's quite funny to see the inside of the shuttle and then the simulated inside of the spaceX capsule and realize just how far technology has come.

 

[the-one1]

I'm not saying space is safe. Something going wrong is inevitable. The truth of the matter is that NASA became complacent and thought that nothing could go wrong and things were rushed or ignored. Just hoping that these new players don't go that same path.

 

[DedEmbryonicCe11]

Once basic space travel becomes a common thing there will be stupid amounts of redundancy built into safety systems. The "bleeding edge" will move further out from Earth at a very slow pace. I still think of us as being in the infancy stage of space exploration. To me, middle age would be when we reach the furthest edges of our solar system with manned craft and/or reach another solar system with craft that can be controlled remotely.