Lost in space

 

It is hard for me not to think about the Boeing Starliner's astronaut crew and their dilemma.

What was supposed to be a eight day trip has now, due to a thruster malfunction, suddenly become a six month venture, two astronauts soon to be alone out in space, without a ship to return home on.

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to fly home on Sept. 6 — more than 12 weeks from the initial return date and without the crew that originally accompanied it.

In a statement, NASA said Starliner will undock from the International Space Station around 6 p.m. ET "pending weather and operational readiness." The troubled spacecraft is expected to touch down shortly after midnight on a landing zone in New Mexico before it returns to Boeing’s Starliner factory at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Starliner will leave behind astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams, who flew abroad Starliner back in June. The pair is slated to return in a capsule built by a competing company, Space X, in February.

The wonderful late cartoonist Ron Cobb, did a cartoon once that showed an astronaut, on his spaceship, looking back at an earth that has just blown up and exclaiming, "Oh Shit." Wish that I could find it, I can't.

Has to be a singularly existential feeling of loneliness, being stranded like that.

And how does it work logistically? Are there adequate food rations or will they have to starve themselves to make it work. How long can they survive out there and how long do they prepare for in a worst case scenario?

What about the bilge capacity or their other intimate needs. I believe both astronauts are married but will they have to snuggle together on one of those cold and storied lunar winter nights? What does such an unexpected travail mean for their personal lives? Do they have playing cards or jenga, is there anything they can do for fun?

Is their every move documented back at Houston or will they be able to jam the circuits and kill the lights for a little alone time?

Boeing has been dying a death by a thousand paper cuts since the horrible 737 Max disasters, one problem after another. The need for Elon Musk's SpaceX to now go and rescue them seems like the final indignity.