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Speaker 1: Now get a load of this. Do you remember those

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Speaker 1: stranded astronauts on the International Space Station. They've been told

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Speaker 1: we don't know when they're coming back. They went up

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Speaker 1: on that dodgy Boeing aircraft to the ISS about seven

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Speaker 1: weeks ago, where they were meant to spend only about

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Speaker 1: a week. But they've been there seven weeks and we

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Speaker 1: don't know when they're going to come back. Josh Raki

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Speaker 1: is a Star Dome astronomer and is with us. Now, Hey, Josh,

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Speaker 1: how long can they realistically be up there?

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Speaker 2: Yes, it's a bit of an unknown question at this

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Speaker 2: At this stage, we don't really have a return date,

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Speaker 2: but as to how long they can stay, I mean,

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Speaker 2: they definitely have months of supplies for those two astronauts

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Speaker 2: that are, you know, kind of overstaying their stay. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: I probably wouldn't worry about supplies or anything. Food. No,

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Speaker 2: I mean, they've got plenty of food and they're you know,

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Speaker 2: they're stocked up and they get pretty regular shipments up

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Speaker 2: to the astronauts. So yeah, I think food is probably

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Speaker 2: the least of their worries.

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Speaker 1: Josh, can't they check them on another spacecraft to bring

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Speaker 1: them back?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we can we technically can I mean,

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Speaker 2: we have other spacecraft which you know don't have as

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Speaker 2: many problems and are upgradable. But the problem is it's,

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Speaker 2: you know, they're very, very expensive to get these spacecraft up,

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Speaker 2: and you know, we also don't just kind of keep

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Speaker 2: them on the launch pad ready to go. So you know,

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Speaker 2: if we were to send one, you know you're talking,

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Speaker 2: it's you know, tens of millions of dollars and also

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Speaker 2: you know, weeks and weeks of preparation, so it's, yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's a bit of a mission either way.

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Speaker 1: And presumably you actually need them up up there to

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Speaker 1: bring the dodgy bowing one back.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's kind of why they're still up. There's

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Speaker 2: a lot of the issues they've been having with these,

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Speaker 2: you know, the thrusters. Boeing said that basically, once the

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Speaker 2: astronauts return to Earth, the part of the spacecraft that's

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Speaker 2: having problems is basically destroyed on re entry, So they're

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Speaker 2: trying to figure out exactly what the problem is before

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Speaker 2: they come home, because when they do get home, the

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Speaker 2: problem is basically destroyed and they're not going to find

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Speaker 2: anything else out. So yeah, they're kind of stuck to

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Speaker 2: a rock.

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Speaker 1: And a hard place, less LEAs of a thing about

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Speaker 1: like if we bring you home in it, you're all

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Speaker 1: going to die, and more a thing of we need

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Speaker 1: to get to the bottom of what went wrong this time,

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Speaker 1: then you can come back.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean it's kind of a great area because

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Speaker 2: NASA and Boeinger, you know, they're not going to outright say, oh,

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Speaker 2: you know, the spacecraft is not working, They're not going

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Speaker 2: to send them it's dangerous. But you know, if they

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Speaker 2: finish these tests and they come to the conclusion that

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Speaker 2: this is not a safe spacecraft and they're obviously not

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Speaker 2: going to send you know, these two astronauts back home

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Speaker 2: on it, they'll have to send up another one. So

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Speaker 2: it's a little bit of a pr nightmare, and we

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Speaker 2: just don't really announcewers yet.

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Speaker 1: Oh, Josh, thanks for explaining to us. I appreciate that. Joshiroki,

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Speaker 1: who's the stardom astronomer.

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