Josh Aoraki: Stardome astronomer on two astronauts being stranded in space while their return is being repaired

Two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station have been told they will be stuck in space indefinitely. 

Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams travelled up to the orbiting lab in Boeing’s space capsule seven weeks ago, and were meant to spend a week there. 

The delay in their return is due to ongoing repairs on the capsule. 

Stardome astronomer Josh Aoraki joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now get a load of this. Do you remember those
stranded astronauts on the International Space Station. They've been told
we don't know when they're coming back. They went up
on that dodgy Boeing aircraft to the ISS about seven
weeks ago, where they were meant to spend only about
a week. But they've been there seven weeks and we
don't know when they're going to come back. Josh Raki
is a Star Dome astronomer and is with us. Now, Hey, Josh,

(00:22):
how long can they realistically be up there?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yes, it's a bit of an unknown question at this
At this stage, we don't really have a return date,
but as to how long they can stay, I mean,
they definitely have months of supplies for those two astronauts
that are, you know, kind of overstaying their stay. So yeah,
I probably wouldn't worry about supplies or anything. Food. No,
I mean, they've got plenty of food and they're you know,
they're stocked up and they get pretty regular shipments up

(00:48):
to the astronauts. So yeah, I think food is probably
the least of their worries.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Josh, can't they check them on another spacecraft to bring
them back?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, I mean we can we technically can I mean,
we have other spacecraft which you know don't have as
many problems and are upgradable. But the problem is it's,
you know, they're very, very expensive to get these spacecraft up,
and you know, we also don't just kind of keep
them on the launch pad ready to go. So you know,
if we were to send one, you know you're talking,
it's you know, tens of millions of dollars and also

(01:17):
you know, weeks and weeks of preparation, so it's, yeah,
it's a bit of a mission either way.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
And presumably you actually need them up up there to
bring the dodgy bowing one back.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, well that's kind of why they're still up. There's
a lot of the issues they've been having with these,
you know, the thrusters. Boeing said that basically, once the
astronauts return to Earth, the part of the spacecraft that's
having problems is basically destroyed on re entry, So they're
trying to figure out exactly what the problem is before
they come home, because when they do get home, the
problem is basically destroyed and they're not going to find

(01:45):
anything else out. So yeah, they're kind of stuck to
a rock.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
And a hard place, less LEAs of a thing about
like if we bring you home in it, you're all
going to die, and more a thing of we need
to get to the bottom of what went wrong this time,
then you can come back.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah. I mean it's kind of a great area because
NASA and Boeinger, you know, they're not going to outright say, oh,
you know, the spacecraft is not working, They're not going
to send them it's dangerous. But you know, if they
finish these tests and they come to the conclusion that
this is not a safe spacecraft and they're obviously not
going to send you know, these two astronauts back home
on it, they'll have to send up another one. So

(02:20):
it's a little bit of a pr nightmare, and we
just don't really announcewers yet.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Oh, Josh, thanks for explaining to us. I appreciate that. Joshiroki,
who's the stardom astronomer.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.