Starliner stranded in ISS - American braggarts and fake technology supremacy now paying a heavy price

 The two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were not stranded. They would be home soon. They love the space station so much that they volunteered to stay on for a longer vacation, doing nothing in space. Their trip was supposed to be two weeks. Now NASA had no choice but to say that their trip would be extended till next year, more than 6 months stranded in the ISS until a solution is found to bring them home.

Many in the know are now questioning why NASA gave the go ahead for the trip when several leakage and software problems were not ironed out. This is taking the risk too far, with no contingency plan should the problems got serious, and it got serious enough, as good as irreparable in space. Can't send it into a garage workshop. No garage workshop in space.

Why did the Americans took the big risk? Before this trip, the Americans were licking their wounds and filled with embarrassment at the success of the Chinese space programmes. Landing on the far side of the moon, bring real, genuine moon samples back to earth. And the Tiangong Space Station is now acknowledged as the best and most advanced space station around. The ISS is overdue to be scrapped, being forced to extend its lifespan beyond what is safe. 

How can the Americans be shamed for having no space station while the Tiangong Space Station would be overlooking the White House every hour? Where would they send all their astronauts to when the ISS is decommissioned, to the space station in Arizona Desert or in Hollywood?

For decades, NASA has practically nothing new to show to the world in space technology or exploration. But it was ok when it had the only space station in the sky. It could continue to gloat about astronauts going and returning from the ISS as a sign of supremacy in space technology. But this antique space machine has become obsolete, a derelict waiting to be scrapped the day China gave birth to its Tiangong Space Station, a sparkling piece of equipment shining brightly in the sky.

NASA must come up with something new or better to show, or be seen as a laggard, a good for nothing organisation that has nothing worthy to prove. For a while, the best game was to flood the media with many 'extraordinary photos' claimed to have been taken in Mars or even from the edge of the universe as great American achievements. No one is wiser whether the pictures were real or photoshop. NASA thought it could get some attention for posting these pictures from outer space. Wow, big deal.

But NASA also knows that these pictures were not enough, did not prove anything. And the more pictures being churned out, people would get suspicious. NASA must do something concrete, something real. And the best it could do was to send astronauts to the ISS. Die, die, NASA must send real living people to the ISS to keep the news flowing, because are doing so, that NASA is still around. And this can't wait forever. 

So, even with so many glitches in the Starliner, it had to be launched, the sooner the better. Otherwise all the news about space exploration would be from China, about China's new conquest on the other side of the moon. And NASA took the unacceptable risk, calculated risk, and praying and hoping nothing disastrous would happen. Mr Murphy was grinning. Don't be silly, don't push your luck too far. What would go wrong would go wrong.

The 2 astronauts were not stranded? To make matter worst, NASA and the Americans have made enemies of China and Russia, the two countries that have the knowhow to bring the 2 stranded astronauts home safely. With the declaration that Russia and China are enemies number one and two and planned for destruction, would Russia and China be kind or stupid enough to want to lend a helping hand? The outrageous sanctions and threats of war, provocations, smearing and demonisation going on daily, Russia and China would best be folding their arms to watch from a distance.

Even Elon Musk was slapped in the face by NASA for bypassing his reliable and tested SpaceX Dragon spaceship in favour of Boeing's trouble infested Starliner. Musk too would be folding his arms in glee. Want help, how much is NASA willing to pay?

Bragging and wanting to show off that American technology is the best, when it is not, is not only foolish but can also be very deadly and embarrassing. The game now is not about producing a moon landing clip to con the world. The game is simply to send astronauts to nearby ISS and bring them home safely. Ooooh, the Americans can't do it. The Americans can only do the difficult stuff like landing on distant moon one thousand times further away with antique technology and rockets.

American space technology, like all American technologies, are world best when there is no competitors around and no one in a position to disprove the lies and the fakes. Oh, the Americans are now bragging about the F35s as the best fighter aircraft in the world, forgetting about the F22s. And everyone in the know is aware that the F35 is a piece of toy not worth the money, a stealth that is not stealth, with a bloated body weight carried by an under power single engine. It was built meant for everything but a jack of all trades, master of none.

Only fools believe the F35s is the best fighter aircraft in the world, because the Americans said so.

PS. Would China violate the American Wolf Amendment to bring back the two astronauts and be attacked for breaking American laws later? The Americans are fabricating all kinds of lies to attack China. In this case, should the Chinese do it, it is a fact, it is violating American laws and all the more for the terrorists in Washington to go all out to attack China.