Astronauts Sunita Williams, 59, and Barry Wilmore, 61, were intended to remain in the International Space Station for only 10 days. But the Boeing Starlifter was deemed too unreliable to bring them home. As a result, they have been up there for 5 months thus far, and will not be brought home until February.
Now Williams “appears visibly gaunt and frail.” As the photo shows, this is an understatement. Physicians have increased the caloric content of her diet, but concern remains. Loss of muscle mass and bone minerals in weightlessness are harder to remedy.
Even assuming the Russians could mount a rescue mission, asking Putin for help during the war in Ukraine is obviously off the table. NASA is impotent to help. So it is all too obvious that we remain dependent on Elon Musk’s Space-X.
President John Kennedy vowed that we would land a man on the moon and bring him home safely within the decade of the 1960s. And we did, in 1969. We last landed a man on the moon in 1972. Now we can’t even bring 2 astronauts from the Space Station without the help of Elon Musk.
One of the first things I learned in geometry was “Through 2 points a line may be drawn.” Very well, if we draw a line of our science and technology, would that line be going up or down? Hint: The answer begins with “D.”
Science and technology don’t progress smoothly. They do so in steps, some big, some small. But they surely don’t progress by moving backward, as we have been doing. Elon Musk appears to be gathering himself for a gold-medal long jump.
True, we can see the news of our endangered astronauts on our smart phones and flat-screen TVs. But we can no longer bring them home safely to Earth, as Jack Kennedy promised. Look at the photo of our emaciated astronaut resembling a concentration camp inmate. There, aren’t you proud?
If Trump were in the White House, her picture would be everywhere in the media, as an example of Trump’s malfeasance. But as things are, you have to search to find the image. We mess up, then we try to hide it. That should make us even prouder.