Astronauts stranded by Biden admin welcome SpaceX vehicle, replacement crew

[ClaytonB]

Praise God for safe arrival, and prayers for safe return flight to Earth:

 

[nikcers]

Going to the space station has got to be pretty stressful but from their perspective it's probably something they spent their whole life wanting to do and then getting to do it.

So it's probably more like a kid getting to go to Disneyland and then getting to stay there longer.

They signed up for this to test out an experimental spacecraft and were only supposed to be there on the space station for basically a week and got to be there for 9 months instead of 8 days. ISS missions, called expeditions, usually last about six months.

 

[ClaytonB]

Going to the space station has got to be pretty stressful but from their perspective it's probably something they spent their whole life wanting to do and then getting to do it.

So it's probably more like a kid getting to go to Disneyland and then getting to stay there longer.

They signed up for this to test out an experimental spacecraft and were only supposed to be there on the space station for basically a week and got to be there for 9 months instead of 8 days. ISS missions, called expeditions, usually last about six months.

Who knows. Whatever the case, they were intentionally stranded up there by the Biden admin just to keep the Trump campaign from getting good press off their return... and that was when their return had already been long delayed by general USG incompetence. The depravity of the DC Swamp constantly using people as political pawns is open for anybody to see. Disgusting.

 

[nikcers]

Who knows. Whatever the case, they were intentionally stranded up there by the Biden admin just to keep the Trump campaign from getting good press off their return... and that was when their return had already been long delayed by general USG incompetence. The depravity of the DC Swamp constantly using people as political pawns is open for anybody to see. Disgusting.

They weren't intentionally stranded up there for any reason other than cost.

The space shuttle program was ended in 2010 and now NASA uses the private sector for rides to the ISS.

Congress only gives budgets to NASA for scheduled missions and they had to wait for a scheduled mission because their rocket for their mission was experimental and broke down.

This is the general detail that gets lost in 10 second TV soundbites.

Even Elon Musk said this much on the Joe Rogan podcast. Yeah they could have been brought back sooner but it would have cost an arm and a leg.

NASA budgets have long been scrapped for these trips. The ISS will eventually even be scuttled.

It is scheduled to be decommissioned and deorbited by the end of 2030. These people got some of the last tickets to space camp and they got to be there for 9 months.

 

[ClaytonB]

They weren't intentionally stranded up there for any reason other than cost.

False. Elon said they were not brought back earlier because it would have made Trump look good during the campaign and in the wake of his victory.

The space shuttle program was ended in 2010 and now NASA uses the private sector for rides to the ISS.

Congress only gives budgets to NASA for scheduled missions and they had to wait for a scheduled mission because their rocket for their mission was experimental and broke down.

As I said, due to incompetence. And yes, when you are incompetent, the price of that incompetence is $$$ -- pay up.

Even Elon Musk said this much on the Joe Rogan podcast. Yeah they could have been brought back sooner but it would have cost an arm and a leg.

It wouldn't have cost $36T!!!

NASA budgets have long been scrapped for these trips. The ISS will eventually even be scuttled.

So yeah, just strand some astronauts up on the ISS for 8 months versus a planned 1-week trip. You're just shilling at this point.

It is scheduled to be decommissioned and deorbited by the end of 2030. These people got some of the last tickets to space camp and they got to be there for 9 months.

In your baseless opinion. I watched the docking livestream, I saw their reactions. These are people who were relieved and exhilarated. I'll wait for them to explain in their own words when they get back to Earth the real reasons they were so relieved and will ignore baseless random Internet opinions until then...

 

[nikcers]

False. Elon said they were not brought back earlier because it would have made Trump look good during the campaign and in the wake of his victory.



As I said, due to incompetence. And yes, when you are incompetent, the price of that incompetence is $$$ -- pay up.



It wouldn't have cost $36T!!!



So yeah, just strand some astronauts up on the ISS for 8 months versus a planned 1-week trip. You're just shilling at this point.



In your baseless opinion. I watched the docking livestream, I saw their reactions. These are people who were relieved and exhilarated. I'll wait for them to explain in their own words when they get back to Earth the real reasons they were so relieved and will ignore baseless random Internet opinions until then...

Not a baseless opinion. Rides to space are expensive. That's why the space shuttle program got cancelled in the first place.

A SpaceX capsule was already scheduled to go to the station next month, with its return trip planned to occur in February. NASA has decided to reconfigure things so that this capsule has two seats free and available for Williams and Wilmore to catch a ride home.

“That just became the easiest and the best option, and the most efficient option,” says Stich.

Steve Stich serves as the program manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

They send the capsule up with astronauts and then bring the capsule down with astronauts.

These launches are budgeted and scheduled missions and NASA doesn't have unlimited budgets to send up astronauts otherwise they would have to cancel missions and there are only so many missions left until the program ends in 2030.

So it's not like they can just delay a mission and then have them go do it later. If they cancel a scheduled mission all of the costs associated with that mission is wasted. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

Crew-10, Crew-11, Crew-12, Crew-13, and Crew-14 flights. The value of this modification for all five missions and related mission services is $1,436,438,446 - Aug 31, 2022

NASA Awards SpaceX More Crew Flights to Space Station - NASA

NASA has awarded five additional missions to Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, for crew transportation services to

www.nasa.gov

SpaceX's CCtCap contract values each seat on a Crew Dragon flight to be around US$88 million

The mission, called Crew-10, lifted off from KSC's Launch Complex-39A at 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 GMT), carrying mission commander Anne McClain and mission pilot Nichole Ayers, both of NASA, and mission specialists Takuya Onishi of JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Kirill Peskov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

 

[ClaytonB]

Not a baseless opinion. Rides to space are expensive. That's why the space shuttle program got cancelled in the first place.

Baseless opinion.

The US Government wastes literal oceans of cash... oceans upon oceans of it, upon the most objectively worthless projects imaginable, not least being its foreign military adventurist wars of aggression all around the globe. With $36T in debt which is growing at a rate of $330M PER HOUR, yeah, we can afford $88M to bring stranded astronauts back down to Earth in a timely fashion, rather than leaving them stranded in orbit for partisan political tactics.

These launches are budgeted and scheduled missions and NASA doesn't have unlimited budgets to send up astronauts otherwise they would have to cancel missions and there are only so many missions left until the program ends in 2030.

Excuses and propaganda. I don't want to hear it. I, like many Americans, am absolutely furious at what was done to these astronauts. The decision-makers who signed off on the decision to defer their timely return need to be identified and prosecuted for criminal dereliction of duty.

So it's not like they can just delay a mission and then have them go do it later. If they cancel a scheduled mission all of the costs associated with that mission is wasted. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

Boy, we sure can't have $100M's wasted by such a frugal and fiscally-responsible entity as the US Government! After a system failure resulting from their own incompetence (derelict planning and preparedness). Just cheaper and easier to line up the sacrificial goats of these two astronauts and their families and friends and just leave them orbiting in space ... indefinitely. Yeah, that makes total sense.

 

[nikcers]

Congress didnt allocate an extra 400 million to give 2 astronauts their own private space ship ride home. They had to catch a ride on one of the funded trips. Go ahead and ask Thomas Massie for an extra 400 million dollars for NASA's budget and see how fast you get it.

 

[unknown]

Wait a second, not sure if true, was one of the astronauts wearing an alien mask?

 

[TheTexan]

Boy, we sure can't have $100M's wasted by such a frugal and fiscally-responsible entity as the US Government! After a system failure resulting from their own incompetence (derelict planning and preparedness). Just cheaper and easier to line up the sacrificial goats of these two astronauts and their families and friends and just leave them orbiting in space ... indefinitely. Yeah, that makes total sense.

They signed up for that risk. They knew being stranded for 9 months was a possibility, and they then strapped themselves into a rocket and went anyway.

They would have been explicitly told as such as part of their contingency planning.

 

[ClaytonB]

Splashed down safely, praise God!

 

[ClaytonB]

They signed up for that risk. They knew being stranded for 9 months was a possibility, and they then strapped themselves into a rocket and went anyway.

They would have been explicitly told as such as part of their contingency planning.

Way to miss the point.

Obviously, astronauts are on the hook for whatever happens. But Elon Musk has explained that the Biden administration specifically told him NO, that they don't want him to go and pick up the astronauts until after January, meaning, after the inauguration, when that was 100% possible. Would it have cost a little extra? Maybe, I haven't looked into the details. But it would not have broke the bank of the USG which is squandering debt at the rate of $330 MILLION / HOUR. This had nothing to do with ability (genuine contingency) and everything to do with choice. The Biden admin obviously did this because they wanted to stave off positive publicity that could have helped Trump during the campaign and in the post-election. That is not "contingency planning", that's intentional sabotage of living, breathing humans; blatant pawn-playing. If you want to be a Biden-admin apologist, suit yourself, but what happened here is nothing short of criminal dereliction of duty on the part of whoever signed off on this. "One spaceship broke down so, sorry, you're SOL until whenever it's politically convenient for the Biden admin for you to return to earth" is not contingency planning, it's the precise opposite of contingency planning. So even breathing the words "they signed up for this" is just braindead apologetics for a criminal administration. I will relish the political whirlwind that the D-party is about to reap for this. Apparently, they thought 2024 was as bad as it gets. No, it gets much, much worse from here, and they are determined to keep stoking the coal for the flames of their own political hellfire... SO BE IT...

 

[ClaytonB]

Wait a second, not sure if true, was one of the astronauts wearing an alien mask?

Yes, I saw it on the live-stream.

 

[ClaytonB]

Congress didnt allocate an extra 400 million to give 2 astronauts their own private space ship ride home. They had to catch a ride on one of the funded trips. Go ahead and ask Thomas Massie for an extra 400 million dollars for NASA's budget and see how fast you get it.

The cost difference between launching Dragon in March versus October of last year would not have been $400M, maybe a few million or something. The cost of the ride is pretty much fixed, with small variations based on schedule. It was intentionally delayed for obviously political purposes. The Ds are playing political pawn-games with American astronauts on the world stage, making an absolute shame and mockery of our whole nation. This has nothing to do with Massie and everything to do with limitless moral depravity in our national political leadership.

 

[nikcers]

The cost difference between launching Dragon in March versus October of last year would not have been $400M, maybe a few million or something. The cost of the ride is pretty much fixed, with small variations based on schedule. It was intentionally delayed for obviously political purposes. The Ds are playing political pawn-games with American astronauts on the world stage, making an absolute shame and mockery of our whole nation. This has nothing to do with Massie and everything to do with limitless moral depravity in our national political leadership.

The cost is 88 million per seat and it's a 4 seater.

That's what the contract is for. The price is fixed and doesn't go down if you only need 2 seats.

If you don't have 4 astronauts you need to send up the price doesn't go down.

That just means the entire cost you spent on the 4 astronaut mission for the ride to space gets added to it.

The other option is Russia. A Soyuz has room for three people to ride in it.

Last time they charged us 90 million for a seat. So probably 270 million to send it up.

Of course they could squeeze even more this time if they wanted to and it would have been a propaganda victory for Russia.

Plus all that money would go into Russia's economy instead of ours.

 

[ClaytonB]

The cost is 88 million per seat and it's a 4 seater.

The US government is adding debt at the rate of $330 million dollars PER HOUR. Don't try to use "big numbers" as a foil here. $88M is literally pocket-change for the Federal government. We just sent almost 200 Bradleys to Ukraine and replaced them all with brand-new ones at an acquisition cost of around $1B, not to mention the $20+B squandered on almost completely pointless "research" for the new vehicles. So, if we can afford to ship $1B of kit to Ukraine, we can sure as hell afford $88M to fly American astronauts back home and, in any case, the cost is a given, so it's not a question of "whether" to spend the money, only when it will be spent.

That's what the contract is for. The price is fixed and doesn't go down if you only need 2 seats.

Irrelevant. This was catastrophic and criminal dereliction of duty by someone in the command chain. It's been a long time since Federal employees have gone to prison for dereliction of duty. It's high time to bring back long prison sentences in Ft. Leavenworth.

If you don't have 4 astronauts you need to send up the price doesn't go down.

The USG wastes more money in ONE HOUR than the cost of the 3 empty seats. I don't want to hear anything that is even the beginning of an excuse.

Last time they charged us 90 million for a seat.

"We can't afford $2M difference between $88M and $90M, so rot in space, losers."

NOT ACCEPTABLE.

I despise the prison-industrial complex but this is one situation where the only remedy I see is prison sentences all around. There are lots of rocks needing to be broken in Ft. Leavenworth.

Of course they could squeeze even more this time if they wanted to and it would have been a propaganda victory for Russia.

Plus all that money would go into Russia's economy instead of ours.

Translation: "We've screwed up so bad that our strategic blunders by which we made Russia a hostile enemy, completely unnecessarily, are now coming to bite us in the ass because now we can't go ask them for help because it will make them look good and make us look like total assholes. Which we are."

 

[nikcers]

The US government is adding debt at the rate of $330 million dollars PER HOUR. Don't try to use "big numbers" as a foil here. $88M is literally pocket-change for the Federal government. We just sent almost 200 Bradleys to Ukraine and replaced them all with brand-new ones at an acquisition cost of around $1B, not to mention the $20+B squandered on almost completely pointless "research" for the new vehicles. So, if we can afford to ship $1B of kit to Ukraine, we can sure as hell afford $88M to fly American astronauts back home and, in any case, the cost is a given, so it's not a question of "whether" to spend the money, only when it will be spent.



Irrelevant. This was catastrophic and criminal dereliction of duty by someone in the command chain. It's been a long time since Federal employees have gone to prison for dereliction of duty. It's high time to bring back long prison sentences in Ft. Leavenworth.



The USG wastes more money in ONE HOUR than the cost of the 3 empty seats. I don't want to hear anything that is even the beginning of an excuse.



"We can't afford $2M difference between $88M and $90M, so rot in space, losers."

NOT ACCEPTABLE.

I despise the prison-industrial complex but this is one situation where the only remedy I see is prison sentences all around. There are lots of rocks needing to be broken in Ft. Leavenworth.



Translation: "We've screwed up so bad that our strategic blunders by which we made Russia a hostile enemy, completely unnecessarily, are now coming to bite us in the ass because now we can't go ask them for help because it will make them look good and make us look like total assholes. Which we are."

It's not a 2 million dollar difference. Buying American creates American jobs and contributes to the US economy.

Plus the contracted mission for the SpaceX capsule was to send 4 people to the ISS we already paid for. So it didn't cost anything extra.

We would have had to pay 270 million or probably more to Russia because the Soyuz is a 3 seater.

So that removes 270 million or more from our economy.

270 million could definitely help the economy where I live.

 

[ClaytonB]

It's not a 2 million dollar difference. Buying American creates American jobs and contributes to the US economy.

"Sir, we need to return the astronauts who were supposed to be in space for 8 days. It's been months now."

"Sorry, buck-o, but it's not our job to take care of America's best-and-brightest, our job is to safeguard the American economy. So, we need to make sure American dollars are spent in America and go to Boeing and not Space-X because we hate Elon Musk now because he's in Trump's good graces."

Absolute, Clown World insanity.

Plus the contracted mission for the SpaceX capsule was to send 4 people to the ISS we already paid for. So it didn't cost anything extra.

The failure to actually plan for contingencies here is absolutely inexcusable. You can ChatGPT this 17 ways from Sunday but it's as obvious as the sky is blue that those astronauts were stranded up on the ISS for purely political reasons. Failing over to Space-X would have made Musk look like a hero, saving the day after Boeing crapped the bed, and making Trump look good by proxy. There are zero mission-related reasons why their return was so long delayed.

This time, the Swamp-creatures have been caught with their pants down and their hand in the cookie jar.

We would have had to pay 270 million or probably more to Russia because the Soyuz is a 3 seater.

So, less than one hour of US debt.

So that removes 270 million or more from our economy.

Yeah, it would almost add one hour's-worth of national debt to the US Government.

270 million could definitely help the economy where I live.

Too bad FOUR TIMES that amount was sent to Ukraine in the form of Bradley fighting vehicles. Plus the rest of the roughly $300B of aid that was sent there, which is 1,000 x $270M.

 

[nikcers]

"Sir, we need to return the astronauts who were supposed to be in space for 8 days. It's been months now."

"Sorry, buck-o, but it's not our job to take care of America's best-and-brightest, our job is to safeguard the American economy. So, we need to make sure American dollars are spent in America and go to Boeing and not Space-X because we hate Elon Musk now because he's in Trump's good graces."

Absolute, Clown World insanity.



The failure to actually plan for contingencies here is absolutely inexcusable. You can ChatGPT this 17 ways from Sunday but it's as obvious as the sky is blue that those astronauts were stranded up on the ISS for purely political reasons. Failing over to Space-X would have made Musk look like a hero, saving the day after Boeing crapped the bed, and making Trump look good by proxy. There are zero mission-related reasons why their return was so long delayed.

This time, the Swamp-creatures have been caught with their pants down and their hand in the cookie jar.



So, less than one hour of US debt.



Yeah, it would almost add one hour's-worth of national debt to the US Government.



Too bad FOUR TIMES that amount was sent to Ukraine in the form of Bradley fighting vehicles. Plus the rest of the roughly $300B of aid that was sent there, which is 1,000 x $270M.

The people that produce Bradley fighting vehicles create lots of good jobs.

I would rather spend 270 million dollars on military contracts that create good paying jobs in the United States then send it to Russia.

Atleast if we have the ability to manufacture Bradley fighting vehicles then we won't run out of vehicles 2 months into a war and have to ride horses.

 

[TheTexan]

Way to miss the point.

Obviously, astronauts are on the hook for whatever happens. But Elon Musk has explained that the Biden administration specifically told him NO, that they don't want him to go and pick up the astronauts until after January, meaning, after the inauguration, when that was 100% possible. Would it have cost a little extra? Maybe, I haven't looked into the details. But it would not have broke the bank of the USG which is squandering debt at the rate of $330 MILLION / HOUR. This had nothing to do with ability (genuine contingency) and everything to do with choice. The Biden admin obviously did this because they wanted to stave off positive publicity that could have helped Trump during the campaign and in the post-election. That is not "contingency planning", that's intentional sabotage of living, breathing humans; blatant pawn-playing. If you want to be a Biden-admin apologist, suit yourself, but what happened here is nothing short of criminal dereliction of duty on the part of whoever signed off on this. "One spaceship broke down so, sorry, you're SOL until whenever it's politically convenient for the Biden admin for you to return to earth" is not contingency planning, it's the precise opposite of contingency planning. So even breathing the words "they signed up for this" is just braindead apologetics for a criminal administration. I will relish the political whirlwind that the D-party is about to reap for this. Apparently, they thought 2024 was as bad as it gets. No, it gets much, much worse from here, and they are determined to keep stoking the coal for the flames of their own political hellfire... SO BE IT...

Obviously Elon could have sent up a rocket to go get them. And Biden could have paid the extra dollars to make that happen.

Just because they didnt doesn't mean this was an intentional conspiracy to screw over these astronauts as a proxy for Trump.

I don't even see how it even makes sense that it would make Trump look bad somehow. How does delaying it until after the inauguration make Trump look bad exactly?

It just seems like you're reading into stuff that just isn't there.

Besides the fact they didn't send a rocket to go get those guys, is there any other reason to believe that this was "intentional sabotage"?