With all the things going on lately, it could be easy to forget that right now there are two people whose problems go beyond those of the rest of the world—about 200 to 250 miles above the surface, to be precise.
I’m talking of course about Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two astronauts who traveled to the International Space Station (ISS) last June on the maiden voyage of Boeing’s Starliner capsule. The trip was only meant to last eight days, but due to technical problems with the craft Mission Control is no longer confident it is safe enough to travel back to Earth; which means Wilmore and Williams might end up staying in the ISS until next February, by hitching a ride with the scheduled return of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
This admittance, mind you, came only last week, after NASA had firmly refused to acknowledge there was anything wrong with the Starliner, and assured the delays in the return schedule were just a precaution as they were checking things out with the capsule while it remained safely docked to the station.
“Don’t say they’re stranded!” they keep telling news media as they keep their best to control their worst PR situation since the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. In the latest attempt to spin the story back into control, CNN recently interviewed Chris Hadfield, a former astronaut from Canada who became hugely popular after performing David Bowie’s Space Oddity during during his six-month stay as Commander of the ISS.
Look, readers of this site know I’m not a fan of conspiracy-like mentality. Yes, Wilmore and Williams are highly trained astronauts with previous experience as Navy test pilots—which is why they were chosen for the first Starliner mission— hence fully equipped to deal with unexpected (even life-threatening) situations. Also our readers know that, unlike most alternative websites, TDG shows proper respect to the authority of scientific expertise.
…But Come. On! There’s one thing to say the astronauts are not at risk while they are strand—I mean, unexpectedly retained— at the ISS, and everything is under control while they carefully evaluate plans to bring them home. But Hadfield saying their 8-day planned mission extending to weeks or months was a strike of good luck for them (“ZOMG! They hit the jackpot, they must feel so happy!”) is just unnecessary lily-gilding at this point.
I also feel this PR spin is less about safeguarding NASA’s reputation than that of Boeing’s, a powerful aerospace contractor whose come under heavy scrutiny after several fatal incidents involving their 737 aircraft. The fact that two whistleblowers were found dead just after raising concerns about the company’s faulty safety regulations with the construction of 737s, also puts into question their quality control applied to their space division.
As an ageing fan of the space program who is envious of those who were there to enjoy the Apollo landings on their home TV screens, it is kind of weird to confirm how NASA—after all these decades— still hasn’t managed to grasp how to deal with the public when problems arise during one of their manned missions. If the Apollo 13 situation had happened in the age of instant notifications and social media, one wonders how the space agency would have handled that “successful failure.”
Here’s hoping the two astronauts return to Earth safely soon. I also hope Hadfield left them his guitar to pass the time.
