Posted on 08/07/2024 1:15:15 PM PDT by DFG
The two astronauts who have already been stuck in space for more than 60 days may have to wait until early 2025 before they can return to Earth — following a trip to the International Space Station that was supposed to last just eight days.
NASA also acknowledged that the astronauts, who arrived on the maiden voyage of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, may have to be rescued by the rival SpaceX CrewDragon, though that vessel won’t be ready until February.
On Wednesday, NASA announced another delay in bringing home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams during a news conference, with the agency saying it’s now looking more closely at an alternative plan utilizing SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.
If tests in the coming weeks suggest that making the trip home on Starliner proves too risky, Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said Wilmore and Williams would have no choice but to hop on Crew-9’s return flight in February 2025.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Hope they are getting paid hourly instead of salary.
The only real purpose the ISS had was burning up a stockpile of Soviet era boosters and now they can’t even do that.
Not if they’re classified as exempt employees, like me.
Starliner Max 8.
This reminds me of "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington".
What a mess - these two were supposed to be home in a week or two.
Have they contacted Sec. of Trans. Mrs Buttguy to sic their regulators on Boeing? Need to reimburse them for meals, lodging and $200 a night for the delays.
“The ISS is itself a purposeless enterprise, serving as little more than a government jobs program for eggheads. The ISS is due to be de-orbited in 2030. No need to wait that long. Get all the astronauts off and drop it in the ocean as soon as possible.”
Agreed—before somebody gets killed up there.
Just sit right back
And you’ll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip,
That started from this tropic port,
Aboard this Boeing ship.
The mate was a mighty Astronaut,
The Skipper brave and sure,
Their passengers blast off that day,
For an eight day tour,
An eight day tour.
The spaceship started breaking down,
The tiny ship was tossed.
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The Starliner would be lost.
The Starliner would be lost.
This is a major obstacle to the Mars trek estimated to be six months total minimum at this time.
A bunch of us thought of Gilligan.
Imagine the overtime…
Good grief what a screwup.
Or a biodome on the moon.
“Are the two astronauts married (not to each other) and have spouses on earth? Or are they single? This could get interesting if they have to stay together for seven more months.”
The station is continuously manned. Two sections. Seven births. Typical assignment is six months.
I think NASA may bump the schedule of Crew Dragon flights and on an emergency basis launch in about 40 days a flight with only a two-astronaut crew so the Starliner crew can be brought back.
That could be good or bad, depending on significant others.
The best way to seriously explore and live on the Moon or Mars or any other planet is to have robots bring supplies and build underground shelters first.
Only when that is done—however long that takes—no matter how many trips it takes—should humans make the trip.
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