No, the astronauts who were scheduled to be on the International Space Station for 8 days, and who are still there over 8 months later, are not being rescued by SpaceX. It makes me wince and cringe every time I hear someone say this.
They were never really stranded or abandoned; their plans changed.
They were rolled into "Crew 9" months ago and are being replaced by "Crew 10"-- to come home soon-- as has been scheduled for months now.
I have very little (if any) respect for NASA and the MIC clods of Boeing. But this "stranded" and "rescued" business is just dumb.
Now, it's possible there were some off-the-record discussions-- and probably some sneakiness and politics (but I repeat myself)-- but you and I will never hear the truth about all that. None of this is the breaking news it is being framed as.
Nothing new is happening that wasn't planned for and publicly discussed months ago. Only people who don't keep up with such things-- such as the media-- could think otherwise.
Thank you for reading.
"Stranded" means "left without the means to move from somewhere."
ReplyDeleteThere's usually an implication of it being unexpected.
The astronauts were transported to the ISS and left without the means to move from it.
They were stranded.
But yes, the plans to un-strand them have been known for months. Just like if I run out of gas and call my wife to bring me a gallon, I can expect that she'll get there in some at least roughly known time frame.
They could have returned on Starliner in an emergency before it departed- that was a judgment call. They also could have returned on the Dragon capsule that was already there. It's only made for 4 passengers, but they made plans to make seating for two more (kind of under the regular seats) in case they had to do that. But the "rescue" mission happened when Crew 9 docked back on November 3 with the 2 empty seats saved specifically for the Boeing passengers. They always had a way back, it just wasn't the way originally planned.
DeleteThey might have preferred to not stay so long- or they might have considered it a bonus. We'll have to wait for a tell-all book, but that would probably not be trustworthy, either.