After so many decades of dithering, fiddling, and excuse-making, NASA suddenly announced it has a plan to bring up stranded pilots Sunita” Suni” Williams and Barry” Butch” Wilmore — next year. The two explorers were actually supposed to return to Earth in mid-June, but because their aircraft, Boeing’s fresh flight Starliner, experienced a damage, they are scheduled to return on the SpaceX Dragon in February.
Predictably, NASA has downplayed the embarrassing point that the eight-day vision has expanded into more than eight weeks. Additionally, they downplayed the awkward fact that the aircraft juggernaut, Boeing, which won$ 1.6 billion in fixed-price contracts from SpaceX, utterly failed to produce a product that was as affordable as Elon Musk’s many smaller upstart company.  ,
Instead of hanging their heads in shame, NASA officials ( Boeing’s officials were notably absent ) kept a positive attitude at a recent press conference, proclaiming their commitment to safety. A test trip by character is neither regular nor healthy, according to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. ]Our decision ] is a result of a commitment to safety”. Assistant NASA Administrator Ken Bowersox echoed this sentiment, adding,” Decisions like this are not quick, but I want to congratulate our NASA and Boeing teams for their complete evaluation, open discussions, and emphasis on safety during the Crew Flight Test”.
The explorers, on the other hand, have handled the complete mess with unusual care. Both pilots expressed confidence in their staff during a press conference last month, saying they were unfazed by the pause. However, it’s not like they have many other options besides being hopeful because the option is dying in a rickety ship without much helium in its thrusters to get it up.  ,
It’s obvious that the people involved are trying to hide the fact that this vision was a huge loss by framing this topic in terms of safety and astronomer confidence. While Boeing ca n’t even perform a basic maintenance roundtrip to the International Space Station, SpaceX has been operating space capsules for four years and is about to launch its next spaceship generation. Nevertheless, Nelson made sure to thank Boeing for its incompetence:” I’m grateful to both the NASA and Boeing teams for all their incredible and detailed work”.
Tellingly, no thanks was given to SpaceX for actually being able to come through and save NASA’s astronauts. Even though Musk’s company is currently “reconfiguring seats on the Crew-9 Dragon, and adjusting the manifest to carry additional cargo, personal effects, and Dragon-specific spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams”, Nelson continues to put his faith in Boeing’s clunker, saying he is” 100 percent” certain Starliner will again fly.
That said, the biggest question remains unanswered: Why is NASA waiting until February to save the two astronauts? Could it be that there will be an election in November that benefits a particular candidate who is being supported by SpaceX and hurts a particular candidate who has praised NASA in the past and currently leads the administration in funding this nonsense?
There are currently three non-cargo space capsules anchored on the ISS, none of which can transport Butch and Suni home. First, there’s the Starliner, which will return unmanned. Then there’s the SpaceX Dragon, which has been parked there since March. Although its four-person crew is scheduled to return in September, they lack the space needed for two more astronauts. The third is a Russian space capsule, which does n’t have enough room for two more passengers and is currently a U.S. adversary in terms of geopolitical tension.
None of this should stop NASA from using SpaceX to send another ship to pick up Butch and Suni much sooner, a choice that the AP described as” no serious consideration” to NASA.
Although it’s possible to give NASA and Boeing the benefit of the doubt, these companies do n’t merit it. This was all about saving the face, according to Occam’s razor, which is typically the simplest explanation. The astronauts wanted to stay eight more months to conduct tests and finish a few thousand Sudoku puzzles, and they can spin this as some routine protocol, but the truth is that these organizations failed badly and need to be changed.
Such reform is on the ballot this November, despite attempts to cover up this fact. The American space program is no longer a nationalist vanity project, but rather a serious matter of strategic interest as a new space race is emerging with China‘s desire to colonize the moon. American taxpayers can no longer indulge failed government bodies like NASA and failed crony businesses like Boeing. They must first deliver the astronauts back home on time, and that means they deserve more for their money.  ,
