• SamuelRoman13

    ULA of course will do the actual launch, not Boeing. ULA will launch Insight on a Polar South Launch. I think they will do TMI at the North Pole. This will send it toward Mars orbit and it will meet Mars at some point and time. I read a comment that it would TMI at the South Pole. Which is correct? Heading south it goes over the Pole and is pointed inward. At the North Pole it points outward. It is very lite so Atlas can easily launch it to Mars.

  • windbourne

    thats weird.
    Starliner is not supposed to even make their uncrewed until next year. Have they moved things forwards or is this just BS going on?

  • Kirk

    I haven’t (yet) heard anything official about either the SpaceX or Boeing unmanned tests slipping past August 2018. Have you?

  • SamuelRoman13

    Crewed flight. Uncrewed is still Aug. the last I heard.

  • windbourne

    huh.
    I thought that I had seen that it would.
    However,just found that boeing moved things UP, not back.

    http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/go-for-launch/os-manned-missions-spacex-boeing-starliner-20180111-story.html

    So, apparently, I am wrong.

  • delphinus100

    Why would anyone want to do any planetary departure from a polar orbit?

  • JS Initials

    A crew of seven? Could Boeing accept paying passengers (tourists?) to take up some of the seats in the coming years?

  • windbourne

    Yeah, but it appears that Boeing moved things forwards. If so, maybe we will see some competition cause both to try and beat the other.

  • Kirk

    … or maybe not.

    I’ve not yet listened to yesterday’s Commercial Crew Program update, but Eric Berger tweeted that Kathy Lueders has low confidence in there being a crewed flight this year, and in the replies he tweeted that he thinks there is only a 50-50 chance that there will be an uncrewed test flight before the end of the year by either company.