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Comment by sneak | Hacker News Reader

It’s still an opportunity. You can have more kids, but most people probably only get maximum one chance in their life to spend half a year in space, even if they are extremely lucky.

It’s also not like they didn’t know that death or delay or anomalous/inconvenient conditions weren’t possibly on the table. They’re test pilots, after all. Any landing you can walk away from is a good one, even if it takes a year.

Sunita Williams (one of the two stranded) is up there for her fifth(!) trip to the ISS. I can’t speak for her but if I had to guess I don’t think she minds being in space, even if it’s unplanned.

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> You can have more kids, but most people probably only get maximum one chance in their life to spend half a year in space

That's not generally how having kids works haha. As you mentioned Sunita Williams has been to space five times. She's also 59 and the only information I found on kids is that she was looking to adopt a kid in 2012. It doesn't sound like she'll be having any more kids.

> Sunita Williams (one of the two stranded) is up there for her fifth(!) trip to the ISS [...] I don’t think she minds being in space, even if it’s unplanned.

Personally, I've been many times to New York. It's a very fun city. But if I booked a weeklong trip that against my will it became a yearlong one, I'd mind it.

I also can't speak for Sunita Williams, just for me in this hypothetical NYC stranding. It could be a very fun year, for sure. I'd certainly try to make the most of it. But I'd mind it.

[1] https://archive.ph/20130126165056/http://articles.timesofind...

> Personally, I've been many times to New York. It's a very fun city. But if I booked a weeklong trip that against my will it became a yearlong one, I'd mind it.

You didn’t spend years of your life and beat out 1,000 other candidates just to earn the opportunity to visit New York. Your full time job does not primarily consist of preparing and training to go to New York. You don’t get up every day and go to a job that earns a federal government salary when you could earn twice as much in the private sector because that’s the only way you can achieve your childhood dream of occasionally visiting New York. You certainly didn’t volunteer to take a test flight on a vehicle that could very plausibly catastrophically fail and kill you because that was the only way you’d ever be able to go to New York again. And if you did get stuck in New York, you probably wouldn’t become mayor.

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