NASA and Boeing engineers are troubleshooting various faults in the Starliner spacecraft. But with only 45 days of docking time available, the window for return is closing.
This article seems to be playing up the idea that the astronauts are in some sort of danger, but NASA has repeatedly stressed that is not the case. These extensions are for research and information gathering, so improvements can be made that properly address the issue in the future.
I've also lost trust in Boeing, but a lot of the reporting surrounding this mission is starting to get annoying. It almost feels like they want a disaster just so they can write about it.
Nonsense. They aren't stranded and could leave right now if they needed to. The part they are collecting data on isn't even made to reenter anyways. They aren't in any danger and they still have plenty of docking time left.
No, they aren't correct. The leaks are still insignificant, and this article is sensationalizing a pretty mundane reason for the return trip delay. They're only "stranded" insofar as NASA wants more time to collect data, and the spacewalk they were planning to do just that had to be postponed because one of the astronauts couldn't get comfortable in their EVA suit.
This also might be the thing the first astronauts warned us about a private space industry. Sure, they can innovate faster and cheaper, but not as safely.
There's a 60 minutes interview with musk crying because his astronaut idols didn't see eye to eye with him on privatizing space.
I'm sure SpaceX would happily do a rescue mission on their own dime purely in exchange for the publicity they'd get for coming to Boeing's rescue like that.