On the flip side, can you imagine being stranded on the ISS, and watching the ship that could have taken you home gone down safely?
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. They’re holding up amazingly well, I don’t envy the astronauts right now.
They’re professional astronauts who have worked their whole lives for the opportunity to get into space. Both Butch and Sunny were probably doing the last mission of their career with this trip, so having it extended from 8 days to 8 months could well be a dream come true for them.
They were actually interviewed this last week and are very happy to stay. They’re completing an unusually high number of scientific tests which were backlogged. This is, according to them, an awesome opportunity to work as their time in space is so restricted.
It seems unlikely to me that their public statements about their situation are a full and accurate reflection of their feelings. I mean, what else are they going to say? “Fuck Boeing, fuck this failed mission, we’re pilots with families and it’s less than ideal that we’ll be stranded up here for 8 months doing busywork while our bone density gets nuked”?
If my employer sent me to a remote island without any of my personal effects, on a vehicle that couldn’t safely return me home, I’d look at any list of tasks they sent me with some measure of bitterness. Even if it was my favourite remote island. Being trapped there would change the colour of things. Working is probably the only thing they can do to keep from going insane.
They’re holding up amazingly well, I don’t envy the astronauts right now.
strongly suspect they’re coping well lol. You gotta understand that people fight for any chance into space, and an opportunity to turn a 2 day trip into 6+ months? yeah, it’ll require last moment changes to their lives but I imagine they’re happy as hell. They’ve been training for decades for this.
