Boeing has become too much a lumbering Aerospace giant. their failure with the Max Jet software/hardware problems and now the Starliner makes me wonder if they need an injection of younger engineering minds in their corporation if they can find them. A lot of colleges and universities have become intellectual trash heaps. There should be more technical schools supported by industries like Boeing and others. I think Space X and Blue Origins will leapfrog ahead of those aerospace giants.

Not the reason, Irshultis, The article was an observation I thought had some merit.

How far back do you propose that history should be the reason for using a measurement system?
The only reason that measurement systems were and are sometimes still argued is whether to make human life easier: science, business, being able to understand each other, etc.
If history was so important, humans would still be communicating with grunts or with some language more developed like Greek or Latin or some other fairly wide spread language.
The Imperial standards was in 1878 while the metric standards was in 1789. Seems like the metric system has more history and is much easier to use and understand being more "organic" relating to the 10 digits of the two hands. Or, if you go way back you can have to history of a base 60 number system.
In fact linear measurement in, say feet, is usually done in a decimal notation such as 5.78 feet and not as 5 feet + some egyptian fractions.

The English system, inch, foot, mile, Fahrenheit, etc relates well to most systems used going way back in ancient history. From it we can easily relate to the organic nature of things.

I learned that in an article I read a few years ago. It was persuasive and checked out at the time.

Measurements so vital and global should reflect history as well as accuracy. It's the one thing we should never have to argue about.

I have a suspicion that the change to metrics and the change to latin in science was an exercise to separate us from the past. Yes, we can convert but we shouldn't have to.

Again! another article I should have kept track of.

Every valid measurement system has its units based in the real world. Meter, kilogram, second metric system has some basic units which are used to measure the real world. The English system, which is hardly used in the world, has slug, foot, second as basic units: slug as mass versus kilogram as mass in the metric system. Pound is force due to the acceleration of gravity. It has been standardized as slug x 32.174.
Use what ever units you want but be sure to convert to unis being used in a project - not done for at least one failed space craft.
The recent orbit failure was from not using the correct timing.
The second is the same for all rational humans, just differing ways of measuring it.

Sounds more like a design flaw - having multiple clocks rather than a single one you run from.

And yes there is no way to know that an astronaut would have been able to perform corrective measures in time. But astronauts tend to not be very risk averse. It’s a continuous struggle between those of us willing to go explore new areas and the risk managers who fear losing funding and support when things inevitably go wrong.

I used to work for Boeing...back when the decisions there were made with a lot of input from the engineers. Since I left it became much more beancounter-run. A former engineering colleague of mine there transitioned into a higher office and shared a couple technical glitches they were dealing with that indicated the engineering had taken a downturn. I'd love to see them go back to the old ways. However, the stock price has more than tripled so...go figure...

Wash and repeat. And that is how we get a 23 trillion debt. er, 24 trillion, 25 trillion, 26 trillion ...

Boeing CEO Muilenberg unceremoniously fired without so much as a "Thank you for your service." Ouch.

After following some discussion about what happens next, this is the frankly miserable situation: The section of the Boeing Starliner contract that specified a mandatory uncrewed docking with the ISS has been edited out. Boeing will most likely not have to refly an uncrewed mission to complete the test, with the first astronauts being used as guinea pigs to see if it works.

The logic (such as it is) works like this: the Starliner is configured to only fly on the expendable Atlas 5, which is expensive compared to the reflyable Falcon 9; the Atlas 5 is booked for the next 8 flights on important missions, so adding another Starliner flight would be A. Expensive, B. Delay Starliner certification, C. bump other Atlas 5 customers.

Boeing has been granted extra money, despite being on a supposedly fixed price contract. They've been allowed to get certification for their abort system with ground testing, not required to actually perform a flight test like SpaceX. They had a parachute failure that was waived off, as the rough capsule landing was considered "survivable." The price per flight is more expensive than the Roscosmos charge for a Soyuz, and far more expensive than a Dragon flight. Nonetheless it seems if the right money crosses the right palms, all is forgiven.

It's remarkable that small businessmen are able to multitask so well.
👍
Merry Christmas, jb.

Whatever you don't treat with appropriate seriousness will come up and bite you.

Sweat the small stuff?

I an surprised some race baiting wag hasn't called the "Rosie the riveter" manikin passenger a "Mammy" stand is and worked some race angle in to the story. I mean NASA is all white men and apparently, that is all white guys do all day.....come up with racist means to keep the women and minorities down.

As I teach my students, if you take care of the units, the units will take care of you, and if you don't take care of the units, the units will really take care of you.

Maybe that's the problem!...they used the metric system...it has no relationship to the real world

Elon Musk was passed out on the floor and could not be reached for comment.

That, and the Metric/Imperial thingamabob.

They FORGOT Daylight Savings Time change...

"During separation from the Atlas V rocket, for reasons that aren’t yet clear, Starliner switched to the wrong clock. "

That looks very much like a software glitch.

"Administrator Jim Bridenstine saying, “This is in fact why we test.”

"“Had we been on board, we could’ve given the flight team more options,” said NASA astronaut Mike Fincke at the press conference. His colleague NASA astronaut Nicole Mann agreed, saying astronauts could have taken manual control of the thrusters or performed a de-orbit, among many other tasks. “That’s our job—that’s what we’re trained to do,” she said, adding: “We don’t have any safety concerns.”

Well, had crew been on board it may have presented another Apollo 13 event and nobody really wants that. She doesn't know how the system would have functioned or malfunctioned.