In what’s fast becoming a space-age rerun of Gilligan’s Island, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are marooned in orbit. It turns out their Boeing spaceship has more in common with the S.S. Minnow than a reliable spacecraft.
This is a friggin’ PR disaster. Technical problems forced NASA to abort this mission at the last minute too many times to count. Perhaps it just wasn’t meant to be.
Meanwhile, this eight-day mission has now become a two-month saga, and there’s no end in sight. NASA’s dilemma: Risk Boeing’s Starliner suffering a Space Shuttle Challenger-like disaster, or wait until next year for SpaceX to give their astronauts a safe ride home. But trust me, if NASA goes with SpaceX, Boeing knows its lucrative contract is toast.
