LIVE - The Undocking of Boeing Starliner From The ISS !

thank you for joining us on this Friday evening we' had a having a few technical problems at space Alles HQ so please bear with us I hope you can see us on YouTube uh we know there's been a bit of an intermittent feed to YouTube so we're just hoping that um that you can see us uh so I'm joined this evening by Daz how are you Daz I'm fine thank you very much um jolly good yeah we've been waiting for this for a long time we have indeed we have indeed so so uh we're going to go over very shortly to NASA TV for the live coverage of the undocking which should be happening before too long uh do we have NASA TV Dad we do um I can't promise we're actually showing to anyone mate right well I don't I don't see it listed there no oh now we are okay right oh that's that's that yeah just uh right can we now maximize that y let me just be bear with me I think we're talking to ourselves mate just let me try this I can't find it anywhere yep I think we're live yes we are live so yeah we are yeah yeah uh we do apologize viewers uh it's been one of those evenings however tonight is the penultimate step in the return to Earth of the Boeing Starlin of this disastrous Mission which has been a disaster since it launched in June it's ended up marooning two astronauts on the International Space Station for eight months when they should have only stayed for eight days um the spacecraft is returning empty to the Earth because NASA made the decision at the end of August that it was too dangerous to allow the bone Starliner to take the astronauts home given its propulsion problems and uh and other helium leaks and other odds and ends and uh we hope that the mission the the the undocking go smoothly and that the spacecraft lands safely now we will be covering the landing of the Boeing star liner which is due to happen at 545 UK time tomorrow morning we hope you can join us for that we'll be up early for that certainly and Let's uh let's hope that it all goes well uh any thoughts about this Daz um well as I said we've been waiting for this so long um it's been um the only way I can describe it it's been a pig's ear right from the wordo um it's um some of the decisions that have been made um do I think that there's going to have to be questions answered when this all gets back um so I I just hope that they do get this thing back in one piece uh I hope more than anything I hope it gets away from um the space station uh safely yes um and then because of course it's then going it's got to do some certain Maneuvers around the the uh space station um although they've changed that because usually I think they said they go underneath but I think they're going to go over the top of it and then they're going to push themselves away gently um and it needs to totally clear the the space station and then about six hours time um it will um come down and hopefully land safely uh in the desert um so because it's a it lands on land same right but it does it lands online it's not going to splash down no um it's totally un crude um yeah because NASA just aired on the side of caution um so yeah we we've just got to watch this uh and hopefully fingers crossed that everything's uh going fine as you can see on the pictures uh it's sat there they've got uh it looks quite pretty but they're sat there at the moment yeah but basically it's it's a white elephant it's um that's right it's um just sat there is they've got to get rid of this so they can then resume normal um working conditions on the International Space Station for crew rotations and everything this is just holding up a um docking port cuz they've only got two where um the star liner and the dragon can actually hook up to so they've got to get rid of this so they can get the next crew up and then the crew that's on there that now we'll be able to come back but of course that's all messed up because we'll be we'll probably talk about that in a little while so can we just uh put the volume on from NASA see whe there's any indication of when this is actually happening because it should happening around now National Space Station and the teams here in the Starliner michig control confirming that we are continuing to be go for an undock in just under 2 minutes from now at 5:04 p.m. e Central 6:04 p.m. Eastern we are standing by for the command of the undock ATP or authority to proceed okay so about two minutes to go yeah so the authority to proceed is issued for undocking the NDS or NASA docking system hooks will begin to open and there are 12 hooks that seal the surfaces between the NDS and the ISS International docking adapter Ida once all 12 hooks are open Springs on Starliner docking ring will push the spacecraft away from the space station okay now justor Chloe Marion just asked for quiet in the room as we are approaching one minute out from Starliner undocking this um this this undocking software and we just heard confirmation that the umbilicals are retracting and hooks are beginning to drive this undocking software is untested it but it's completely untested so fingers crossed yeah it's you say it's untested but um it has been used before but because because they were this crew was supposed to be on they've had to totally reconfigure it yeah so it's never been tested in used in this configuration they to mess around with it so um Ian's asking what could possibly go wrong in this at this moment is well hopefully they' they've got the hooks retracting uh and then hopefully it will just gently push itself away so uh that's the that's the first thing is to get it undocked and then it's got to do with Maneuvers and then uh fire its thrusters to get into the right attitude uh and Telemetry for its come there it go there it goes it's undocked separation confirmed Starliner is now backing away from station and starting its return to Earth Starliner sters will then complete two short firings to gradually increase the separation speed to help the spacecraft carefully move away from the orbiting l lab the vehicle is now about 2 m away from the International Space Station at the time of undocking Starliner in the International Space Station were flying approximately 260 statute miles over Central China well so far so good but of course that was a purely mechanical process Springs St breakout burn soon which will take the spacecraft forward and above station during this burn sequence Starliner thrusters will perform a series of 12 short firings the entire sequence takes about 5 minutes to complete and allows Starliner to quickly break out to outside the approach ellipsoid or AE and about 4 minutes into the burn sequence Starliner will exit the keot sphere or the Kos is it supposed to turn I it was Yeah well yeah you can see that it's firing its thrusters if you look on the left the thrusters firing so it's it's under Thruster control at the moment and you can see those thrusters firing there on the left of your screen as Starling our backs away from space station and we are now just at 35 M away from the International Space Station lovely view we saw a good first burn ISS ISS enabled confirmation all 27 Jets have fired good cops thrusters enabled and you're seeing the light show there on your screen and the first three of the 12 firings have completed and there's about second pause until the fourth burn so far so good yeah well I don't know I mean well that's that's one the first task to be ticked off that it's actually now undocked um which was um like I said that was one of the things they couldn't do without the crew on board that's right um because when they configured this this was configured the actual software was configured to fire with a crew on board and it needed somebody actually on board to press the undock button sort of thing that's being a bit simplistic no controllers are reporting atude and of course when they decided they're not returning the crew they then found out that the configuration of the automated system Al loaded used by a crew not by automation sequence so they've had to reconfigure this there was something like about a million lines of code that they've had to goere is imhere centered on the space station everything seems smooth at the moment fingers crossed we are 15 seconds away from the fourth burn in the series of 12 there we go and you just saw burn four which just completed we're hearing good burn and the fifth burn and that sequence of 12 just completed and it was a good burn we don't know whether those burns are actually putting on the right trajectory but they're certainly doing something I think because they're firing all of them um I think it's basically test firing to make sure um that everything's uh all the Jets all the um thrusters are working sixth burn and the series of 12 was just completed and it was a good burn we have we are halfway through the series of 12 six more to go um right Samuel uh Loren might be able to those lights is asking about this module is it going to be used for the moon or Mars um it's it's neither this is basically a taxi service anded low space orbit initially for the International Space Station it's going to be the same as the dragon but this is not designed for taking anyone any long distan that's where thean Cap comes in withs break Breakout so50 away from the international question thank you and we heard confirmation of a good burn n three more to go but then again saying that if they Ryan misses the moon they can carry on to Mars yeah now Samuel this is this is uh this is part of um burnt good burn NASA's commercial crew program uh in 2015 they asked both SpaceX and Boeing to design a vehicle for taking astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station SpaceX built the dragon which has so far flown I think nine or 10 Crews to the International Space Station plus lots of cargo missions without incident without any problems go but they have confirmed ster has crossed the kout sphere or the which is an imaginary 200 met sphere centered on the International Space Station that helps flight controllers here on the ground monitor the arrival and departure of visiting Vehicles station Houston Space ground 2 Starliner has exited the key sphere right so it's exited the imaginary sphere around the space station that not allowed to enter until everything is 100% guaranteed safe and it's now left that imaginary sphere uh which if I remember right is 500 Metter around the International Space Station so now technically it doesn't pose any danger to the International Space Station although it this automated breakout sequence was chosen to use starliners forward thrusters which have remained nominal during this flight so thrusters are all okay and we heard confirmation that all 12 Burns in this series of breakout burn firings have completed and they were all good Burns Starliner has crossed the keot sphere so the next milestone for Starliner departure will be crossing the approach ellipsoid or AE the AE is another invisible shape monitored by the flight control team measuring 4 km x 2 km x 2 km Starliner is scheduled to cross the approach ellipsoid in about 10 minutes Vehicles outside the AE have to be on what we call a 24-hour safe free drift trajectory which means the spacecraft would not cross into the approach aloid for at least 24 hours even if it lost all maneuvering capabilities outside the approach ellipsoid joint operations between Starliner mission control and the International Space Station flight control room will conclude and Starliner will be on a path back to Earth okay D I think we can cut the sound from that for a while nothing's 10 minutes um so the big question is of course what happens next well what happens next which you'll find out tomorrow morning is the Starliner entering the atmosphere on its uh deploying its parachutes and uh landing on on land because um unlike for example the Apollo capsule Starliner is equipped with airbags that allow it to land on land um so this actually is quite a step forward for re-entering vehicles what happens after that of course well depends a lot on the success of this undocking which seems to be going well so far and the landing but the future of the Starliner is very very much up in the air at the moment NASA's official line is that the star Lum will be flying cruise to the International Space Station but they've had such problems with this mission that big questions have been asked about the viability of the whole project so while we're waiting for Starliner to do that across the uh across the the next imaginary barrier if you like what I thought we might do is to have a look at the history of this troubled Mission Daz if you could keep an eye on on uh on NASA TV and uh make sure that um we're not missing anything um so um let me just put this up for you give me one second so the Boeing timeliner boing boing starer in tell his L do you want me to take this down Andy because uh I've still got it on screen um yeah please right Starliner has had a real checkered history let me just take you through this so we can see exactly what's happened so this actually started back in November 2015 when NASA awarded contracts to both Boeing and Starliner to develop a vehicle to deliver crew and cargo to the is Boeing received 4.2 billion for this and SpaceX only received $2.3 billion the first uncrewed orbital test flight known as of1 was in December 2019 and the mission failed to reach the ISS due to a timer anomaly and uh it returned to Earth prematurely not having completed its Mission later 68 problems were identified with the soft the spacecraft mainly in software unbelievably the software which is made up of different modules had not been tested together on the ground and NASA had allowed Boeing to forego those test testing all the different module software together at the same time also normally what happens with a spacecraft is that when it takes off its clock is zeroed to signify the start of the mission well for some reason the Boeing Starliner decided to zero its clock 12 hours before that so when it launched it thought it was 12 hours further into the mission than it actually was which meant it didn't perform the right uh course Maneuvers and um and consequently it there's no way it could get into the correct orbit to dock with the ISS that was a disaster and uh that didn't stop boing from carrying on of course they attempted another orbital flight because they had to they had to carry out to successfully for the spacecraft to be certified to be able to carry humans um this was scrubbed because just a few hours before launch they discovered that um fuel valves on the spacecraft were stuck in the open position 12 of them and what it later turned out was that the valves have become corroded by the interaction of water with uh space CFT Fuel and this is why they were stuck Boeing never found out exactly what had caused that problem so they just decided to replace all the valves and hope that it worked but the problem was never actually resolved that wasn't the last problem though um in May 2022 they did have uh another crack at it the of2 mission did successfully launch and dock with International Space Station however there were problems with the thrust and guidance systems those problems with the thrusters would uh crop up again but the mission was deemed a success because it did dock with the ISS and return uh safely to the Earth in May 2023 the uh the next mission was delayed because they had uh found problems with parachutes and also that literally miles of electrical cabling inside the Starliner had been wrapped in a tape that was flammable so they obviously NASA couldn't allow that to fly because of obvious safety issues in the end they didn't replace all of the tape they just replaced the bits they thought were perhaps more susceptible to catching light um but again a big embarrassment a problem in March 2024 NASA decided that Boeing had done so well with the spacecraft that they extended the contract and gave it another six flights on the contract for crew crew transport to the ISS and NASA said they were quite confident in the Starliner program although obviously as we've seen up until then it have been a complete disaster so that was in March 2024 and then it says may here but it was June because it was delayed uh June of this year as we know the current mission was launched and it was at the end of towards the end of July that they identified that there were some fairly serious problems again with the thrusters overheating stopping them working at Optimal Performance stopping them develop their proper thrust and in in late August NASA made the decision they didn't trust the Starliner to return the astronauts to the Earth safely uh Butch and Sunni Butch Wilmore and Sunni Wilson and they are now going to come back on a SpaceX spacecraft the SpaceX dragon in February 2025 so their uh initial 8 day stay has turned into um an 8mon stay so that's the story um any comments Daz well um we just start um because also when they did do the unman test and it did do dock with um the International Space Station you got to remember as well as the thrusters underperform him they had trouble with the docking ring yeah because as you know the docking ring extends from the uh star liner but then they had to retract move back out again retract the docking ring and extend it again and then luckily this time it actually all worked so they were able to do it um and so now we I mean you can see how far away is from the International Space Station so it's we it's successfully undocked that's that's the first thing they needed to achieve was to actually get it away from the International Space Station and of course there was worries that with the fruster problems that it could spin out of control or H and hit the International Space Station um I don't know whether they've actually taken any precautions on um actually on the International Space Station I mean the only thing they could be doing is if they thought that there was a possible um problem that or there could have be initially a problem is that they would have to all get into the um the dragon yes um which is what they normally do which is they go to um if there's anything a problem if they think they space debris or anything like that they always go to their uh designated uh capsules and then they sit it out so that they can undock as soon as if anything un does happen so I so I haven't actually heard whether or not the crew were um uh told to go to the uh the the dragon and wait to out or uh or what because of course they weren't needed for this um because it's all automated so uh but yeah it's it's um I mean of course the one of the main problems that boing's got now when it when this does come back we're only getting the capture back we're not getting the service module back and this is where % of the problems are yes that's right so don't forget viewers that the um the service module on the back of the capsule detaches before re-entry and of course those thrusters that have been spectacularly failing are in the service module so they're not going to come back to the Earth for testing um Boeing have sort of identify what the problems are with the thrusters that they are overheating when people actually take control control of it and fire the thrusters manually and uh that's fine but of course you know um it's a design problem um and it's unbelievably something that they didn't they either didn't test or didn't test sufficiently because they knew from the previous mission that there were problems with the thrusters and yet they were allowed to fly again with the same problems um so you know you can make of that what you will I think it speaks to a culture of uh the same culture that has recently been slammed if you like in the report from the office of the Inspector General about the SLS the space launch system where they identified a culture of Boeing using undertrained underqualified uh and um inefficient staff and management practice IES and I think it's the same thing that obviously the testing regime for the Starliner was nowhere near as as good as it could have been because if You' got a problem with a dodgy Thruster you don't just say oh well perhaps it won't happen again uh you get to the root of the problem and they singularly failed to do that after the last mission hence the reason that they've actually ended up marooning two astronauts away from their families for eight months instead of eight days yeah because the the main problem is is with these oh they've they moved it off now if you can see on the service module these rectangular blocks on the side now there's four of them and they called them dog houses yeah and in there there's a multitude of thrusters and what they found is that when they using the thrusters or manually for someone in reason the heat is being retained in the dogghouse and the thrusters are losing capability um they're losing power they're not working to their Optimum pressures and that so uh and this is what the problem was now they've had um a capsule that's been sat around for um a coule of years now that did do one tour and they've actually tried to strip this down but what they're saying is is that these dog houses once they're assembled they can't test them on Earth no now as far as I'm concerned that's a load of b bs um at the end of the day you're going to put people on this you've got to test test these things to the nth degree yeah um and there was one um where they did one of their press conferences it was sort of slip through and I nobody sort of like picked up on it but um I did is that they were talking about that they were talking to other companies that have used these types of thrusters and they've had similar problems yeah now isn't that a red flag yes definitely it's a red you know it's it's a red flag there's just one thing just um a quick question Andy if you want to take it sand Sandra Grace oh hi Sandra good evening hope you're well uh it says I'm not sure what she says is it because they have to wait for the dragon to be ready that they have to stay up there till uh next February so she's talking about sunny and um uh but and Sundance um yeah so do you want to say that Andy yeah well what's going to happen the next the next crude Mission before then was going to launch with four astronauts two have been bumped off to provide uh an extra two seats for the uh for but and Sun now this the um the SpaceX dragon can actually carry Seven astronauts it has the capacity for Seven astronauts but it's only flight qualified for four at the moment it's never been certified to carry seven so they have to work with four seats so it will launch when when's When's that is this month isn't it the the next well now they've got it now they've got it cleared yeah um they can launch it um I don't know when it's scheduled I'd have to go I think it's this month I think it's this month I think it will be this month because they want to get um some of the crew back um and of course they'll be coming back um on the Dragon that they've got at the moment yeah but the problem was also was suits yes absolutely um and this is one thing that both me and Andy have discussed in the past is why are not this both the suits for the Starliner and the dragon compatible um so apparently there is one Dragon suit up there that went up with um the lady astronaut from the USA something what's her name something B Dyson bison yes that's right she went up on the soos but they they also sent up a dragon suit in case she had to come back um VI Dragon because of um uh the soers they've had their own problems um and so they had one suit but that would also mean that one of them had to come back in a um a Starliner suit and of course it's not compatible with the fixings and things like that so it wouldn't be pressurized or whatever you know whatever systems they've got on there so um but yeah so that that's one of the problems so when they go up they they they're supposed to be taking uh at least one suit if not two um and um then they uh two of the crew that are up there now which is um they will be coming back with the two crew that go up this time yes it's very confusing very confusing um but and sunny will stay up there um until as Andy said February then they will come back with I think it's crew 9 or 10 yeah it's crew nine I think isn't it crew n um so can I just can I just get through some of these other questions sorry D car yeah Samuel says um as a hobby as software developer I say that things going to happen I totally agree with you Samuel I'm a I'm a software developer myself whenever any of my systems have gone live in the past uh they've never done so without me testing and testing and testing and testing and testing and not letting anything go live until I was happy that everything was working you do get problems occasionally of course but the point is that you do as much testing as you possibly can now putting it in software terms what about if you built a software application and you rolled it out and it had problems and then a little while later you had to roll a similar software application out that used some of the same routines that were faulty you wouldn't do it you would make sure you fix those problems before rolling the same thing out again to cause more problems but this is exactly what Boeing have done with the Starliner so uh you know there's no excuse for for them not fixing the Thruster problem when they knew they had the problem yet they launch people let people launch on this thing and they knew they had the problem uh or potentially had the problem so um so there were let's have let's um I've had to um cancel the um oh sure yeah because they they finished we were some some reason Robin Robin edar says hi Robin hope you're well um if it's boing and you're going you may not be coming back on Boeing so yeah so we'll have to start a poets cor Corner yeah yeah Robin hope you can come back and uh and give us another talk on space audities please soon hope you hope you're doing well we can't wait to see you again anyway what else have we got here um yeah Samuel says again and he's absolutely right very disappointed to see incompetence creeping in on every facet of Technology absolutely true and the thing is that is a very true word and um um Andy knows that I'm mad well I'm almost I keep saying to him that I'm not sleeping at nights because I'm getting this cynical head um and every and every time uh I mean I'm going to end up with conspiracy theorist I can see it but every time the um inspector General um Office of the Inspector General overseeing NASA makes does any report then I'm there and I'm downloading it and I'm reading it um and the thing is as you say with the incomp incompetence thing is if you read anything I don't want to bad you know knock them down but Boeing have got only got themselves to blame they're being uh hammered for things like untrained staff or ino in train trained not up to the standard that NASA are expected uh 40 weld it and I'm talking about this is talking about um the mobile launcher 2 which is needed very soon for the next version of the SLS because it's bigger they're building it there's a company who's never done anything like this before um and they're getting away with murder they're using uh Cost Plus contract and they're getting away with murder yeah um the SLS is being really hammered again because they're finding some of the welding um on some of the major components like the top of the oxygen tank from I think it was um section two uh the welding is um faulty it's it's not up to grade if you got something like that that fail you know um but also I mean we've got the the star liner and they all say exactly of the same things is that um mean this is a slightly different case because this is a case where Boeing did a fixed price contract and they've sworn they will never do one again because the last I heard I think they were 1.6 billion in the in the red was it was that right or am I talking about the SLS I don't know no no the the Starliner has so far cost them 1.6 billion yeah on top of the value of the contract they have paid an extra 1.6 billion um to solve these problems can I just go to Ian Ian asked on me um is it simply because they are a commercial outfit that they have so many problems I mean Boeing are what we call you've often refer to Old space they've been there since the Year Dot and they were the people along with the likes of norford grham um uh what were the other ones Andy you know the whole Lo Martin yeah Loy Martin rocket Dy and all that and these were the people who built the Apollos and the reason that they had to go and this this goes like said all all this troubles go back to the very beginning of NASA in fact Beyond there with this Cost Plus contracts because they go back to the war um uh when they were prep preparing M Munitions for um the Army en during the second world war might even been the first world war as well but they um this is where these contracts come from they're still using them and basically it means that they although they when they initially set out they have targets you would to be here at this time you want to be there at the same time you want to be get this done you want to get that done and they miss these goals every single time so they extends the time it increases the cost and yet the government will pick up the tab and also when they reach they got targets and when they reach that Target they could be a year behind yeah they will still because they've reached that Target get that bonus and you're talking about hundreds of millions of pounds um so they're given money for failing and this is what it is so to try and cut cost cuz costs in nassa are being really squeezed at the moment they did try this um fixed price and it's to to encourage competition and get things cheaper yeah definitely um this is the first time Bowen's done it they failed miserably as Andy said earlier on SpaceX got half the amount of money that Boeing did yet they achieved it yeah and not only achieved it they they they've run many crude missions yeah exactly and cargo missions without one single problem yeah uh can I just catch up something that Samuel said um Samuel you were asking about the fact that the the Starliner looks like the old Apollo capsule well it does um the reason is that when NASA decided they were going to go back to the Moon they decided to use a design that they knew worked so it's no surprise that uh both the Orion capsule and actually the boing Starliner have come up with the they've come up with the same design a similar design to Apollo because they know it worked they didn't break any new ground apart from obviously the technology being up toate in terms of design they wanted to come up with a system that that works because they knew that Apollo had worked spectacularly the Saturn 5 and the Apollo Commander service modules and the lunar module all work fantastically every time so this is why these vehicles have ended up looking like Apollo spacecraft because that design works now you could argue well you know we're in the 21st century now couldn't somebody come up with a better design but it was all based on what works we'll do it again so that's that's the reason really and also I think they bought every every type of um uh switch rocker switch U toggles fuses um and everything like that Trippers uh in in the world and they' still got a bulk of them because they still use them now I saw a mockup of the Starliner two or three years ago and it looked a lot like the inside of a dragon where of course in the dragon there's very few switches at all it's all done by touchscreen so they they can play Candy Crush while they're taking off and things like that it's really fantastic they do yeah but it's while they're waiting while they're waiting it's the you know yeah um Clash of Clans anyway um and um but what what um I and I saw a mockup of the Starliner and it looked very very similar where it was all touch screens but if you look at this Starliner like you say it's like an old Apollo it's all switches it's all there is some touch screen remind more of the it reminds me more of the Space Shuttle actually yeah exactly I mean close shuttle yeah that level of complexity like the flight deck of a 747 you know it's just it was and um it's like Andy said it's a technology they know and they want to stick with it um and um it um it beggar instead of going down the the the uh Technologies way um they they they've stuck with what they know and be quite honest the Starliner you see inside it it's cramped it's just loads of switches um the in the dragon the crew seem to be able to get in and get out quite easily but in the uh Starliner when they put the the two astronauts in this time it took them ages to get them in because they got a clamber over this that in the area they've got all the switches um and things like that so and of course then they've got also these log books these checklists and they're they're sort of like just velcro onto the the thing and they just go through them yeah and it's you know whereas on the star on the dragon it's all touch screens it's all this and that and so it's so tidy um but like said we've got to in so the idea of the commercial crew was to increase competition and lower the price that was the G the goal but unfortunately Boeing have failed miserably whereas um SpaceX uh they they won hands down um and in fact basically na NASA and the US uh country the American country to thank SpaceX for actually giving them access to space because they would be absolutely they'll be holding to the Russians again like they were before and this was another reason why they had to build their own um once they canell the um uh the space shuttle um but uh yeah it it's when you look into it you can see what the problem is and as I said every time they get reports Boe um and really anything to do do with old space is always the same old thing you virtually read in the same uh report every single time and a lot of it's to do with untrained staff um poor quality control yeah poor safety measures and things like that so well of of course you know I mean I'm not an expert on the on the aviation industry by anymore but uh you talk to most people in the know and they say Boeing's problems went back to when they merged with McDonald Douglas back in the late 90s uh that's when things went downhill and that's when Boeing started to be run by accountants rather than Engineers that's that's what everybody says I have no idea whether it's true but um um quc control in particular has definitely yeah uh deteriorated since then because bow used to be the Benchmark for terrific engineering yeah absolutely then they they as soon as they mared with locky Mar it became a cash C they they were going to milk it for everything they can get yeah which basically went standards have dropped ever since then um and it's not just to do with space it's also to do with their Aviation business we all know the troubles that they've had they're under in investigation still for lots of things um and the thing is that they're asked to correct things and two years later they still haven't done it um this is one of the things I noticed in the last report can I just take Ian's question yeah car why in space have they allow Boeing to continue right so Ian Boeing has an army of lobbyists in Washington Boeing work in most if not all states in the USA the respective Congressman want beinging to continue working in their states because it provides jobs and of course if there are no jobs and they get voted out of Congress by the by the the voters um they've got Boeing have got a lot of financial clout uh now I'm not suggesting at the moment that anybody in congress is on the take but um you know um they H they are a very powerful group of lobbyists going and NASA can only do what Congress tell them to do NASA cannot make big decisions about contractors without the approved of Congress so you know so it continues so um this is the situation that it is whereas you see SpaceX haven't got that political clout and NASA have always um well put it like this not openly but there are people within NASA who've always been dead against NASA using commercial companies like SpaceX uh the current Administration Bill Nelson um although he's changed his tune a bit now seeing which way the wind is blowing but certainly few years ago he was absolutely against the idea of of NASA using SpaceX and you know this comes ultimately from Washington um he's the administrator he has to dance to to Washington's tune uh unfortunately so uh so there you are um so I think we'll call it a day for today ladies and gentlemen would' like to thank you very very much for being with us uh this evening thank you for sparing the time and spending it with us we will return at 545 UK for the final bit of this sorry Saga the landing of the Boeing starer now parachutes they've had problems with these parachutes in the past um so so oh it just goes on and on so anyway we hope to see you at uh I know it's very very early you're not likely to be up we will be here here um of course I'm lucky because it's 6:45 where I am so I get an extra hours uh sleep uh so um it doesn't work like that Andy You're an hour ahead now as well I'm joking I'm joking so yeah of course I don't get an extra hour sleep but it's a later time for me to get off so it won't be quite the middle of the night so I will be here at 6:45 Daz will be here at 5:45 UK so we hope to see you in the morning and if not you can watch the recording afterwards of course so eron uh thanks for being here eron we'll see you on Tuesday of course and uh we'd like to thank all of you especially for your for your questions thank you Sandra thank you Samuel for being here uh we hope to see you on Tuesday if not can I just before we go Andy can I just um uh you probably find there was another thing that we hope to be covering and that's polara Dawn and you've probably noticed uh if you've been following on um uh Facebook that uh it it's changed the date several times so please bear with us we're frustrated as well but I can't imagine what the astronauts feel like the Polaris daor astronauts feel like but uh at the moment it stands that it's m Monday morning Monday morning 8:38 8:38 UK you that's BST yeah so work out your timings and stuff like that um but remember it's subject to change but watch looking for keep an eye on Facebook and all that I'm trying to keep on on top of it but every time I post something five minutes later they've moved it again absolutely yeah so we we as soon as we know something certain we'll be on just let just let me uh yeah thanks D just let me go over again uh we'll be here at 5:45 UK time uh this morning or tomorrow morning or whatever you are at the moment 5:45 BST for the landing of the star liner Monday morning uh we'll be going live at 8:15 BST for the launch of the Polaris Dawn this unique Innovative exciting SpaceX Mission and then of course we'll be back on Tuesday with our normal Tuesday live stream and all the gang will be here um sorry there've only been two of us tonight Michael's uh out um and when Michael goes out he doesn't just go out he goes out out uh so uh so Michael's out tonight so he couldn't join us he's hoping to join us in the morning depending on how much sleep he gets um but Tuesday Tuesday we going to start a new series on the live stream and um Lou is going to be telling us or investigating climate change but from the point of view of space so that looks quite interesting and uh we look forward to the first one of those on on Tuesday as well so if we don't see you tomorrow and we don't see you on Monday 8 o'cl UK on Tuesday for our normal Tuesday live stream with with uh with Lou talking about climate change from the point of view of space all our regular features of course when all the gang will be here hopefully so from from Daz and myself we bid you a very good night thanks for being here again and we'll hopefully see you in the morning a bit later this morning byebye we be be