Starliner Astronauts Return to Earth After More Than 9 Months in Space

cnn.com

23 points·m463··5 comments

Thank goodness for a non-hyperbolic headline. I totally hated the "rescue" and "stranded" messages.

They are going to be stuck behind space related bone density loss. They're older, and no amount of exercise is going to re-mineralise. They're probably now officially osteoporotic, or have osteopenia. There are drugs. I'm told by people who took them they have long-term endocrine system consequences, switch off some pathways. So once you start, you're on them for life (I'm not in med. if this is incorrect I welcome correction)

But still, what a ride. Extra time in a smelly hotel with a great view.

There is a great Scottish meme emerging about the splashdown, and how strongly the parachutes resembled 'Tunnocks Tea Cakes' wrappers..

Stranded and rescue seem the right terminology if they are going to have permanent medical disabilities. It would definitely have been called stranded by the American media in an earlier era.

They could have left at any time. There was a lifeboat available right there. Had there been a true emergency, they wouldn't have been trapped.

So no, they weren't stranded. They had to wait several months longer for a replacement crew, and the extended stay does indeed have some health impacts, but they never required rescue.

The "lifeboat" did not apparently have custom seats for Williams and Wilmore and was deemed unsafe for re-entry and landing. So yes, they were effectively stranded as they had no technically safe means of return.

That was only true until Crew-9 arrived in September, after that they could have at any point evacuated with the same configuration as the one they just came down in.

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