I have not followed this situation, not my thing. But I have seen clips every few days that show astronauts laughing and bouncing in their gravity free environment. Lots of frolicking, laughing, "everything is fine" Baghdad Bob type images. But what the fuck is going on? They were supposed to be coming home. And there was all this happy talk about how there is no problem - it is just being delayed because all sorts of safer and more convenient options are being deployed that required more time, but otherwise no problem. Then I start hearing - just on a channel surfing level- that they might not be back before the beginning of the year even if Elon goes to get them or something. SAAYYY WUTTTTT? Both the government and private media reporting looks gaslighty to me on this.
1-There is no emergency. There's plenty food on the ISS for the 2 additional people. 2-Boeing is a joke in the space business. Their capsule (Starliner) should not have been used IMO because of the leaks they found BEFORE they launched to space. Now they found additional problems (thrusters) which is causing the delayed return to earth. 3-The reason they may not come home until early 2025 is because that's when SpaceX is scheduled to bring more astronauts back home. If Starliner is deemed not safe they'll send it back empty and use SpaceX to bring the 2 home along with others scheduled to come home. 4-If there was an emergency, NASA would pay SpaceX to send a capsule up now to bring them home but since it's not an emergency they'll leave them stay until 2025 rather than pay for an additional flight.
Okay. I get what the official script is. Nothing to worry about. The government and Boeing are in charge. What could go wrong there? I sure hope that the men don't run out of tampons.