NASA has decided it’s too risky to bring two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s troubled new capsule. They’ll have to wait until February for a ride home with SpaceX.
That’s what I was reading on Wikipedia at the time, it’s since been changed to commander TBD. Aleksandr Gorbunov is unbumpable, as he’s flying through the seat swap agreement between NASA and Roscosmos, so he’s been moved from mission specialist to pilot. Ars is reporting that they’ve heard that original commander Zena Cardman has retained her seat, but I guess it isn’t official and there’s some concern with some at NASA that neither Cardman nor Gorbunnov have flown in space before. NASA hasn’t flown an all-rookie flight since Skylab 4, the last crew to visit that station.
I assume all the leaders and top engineers at SpaceX would come to meetings, listen to Elon rambling nonsense for an hour, said "sure boss, that sounds great" then went to the "real" meeting without Elon all the way across the facility to get shits done.