Speaker 1: Hi, it's Zara popping in here. And just before we
Speaker 1: start the podcast, I have a quick favor to ask
Speaker 1: if you could press follow to The Daily Oz's podcast
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Speaker 1: up the charts and help new audiences find us. Thank
Speaker 1: you in advance. And now let's get to the podcast already.
Speaker 2: And this is the Daily This is the Daily ohs oh,
Speaker 2: now it makes sense.
Speaker 3: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS.
Speaker 2: It is Friday, the thirteenth of September, an unlucky day,
Speaker 2: some would say, I'm Billy.
Speaker 1: And I'm Zara.
Speaker 2: Over the past few months, you may have seen headlines
Speaker 2: that two astronauts are currently stuck in space. Now, to
Speaker 2: be clear, NASA and Boeing have really tried to deny
Speaker 2: that these astronauts are stuck or stranded or whatever word
Speaker 2: you want to use that implies they aren't able to leave.
Speaker 3: But we do know one thing.
Speaker 2: The two astronauts were only meant to be in for
Speaker 2: eight days, but now they will be there for.
Speaker 3: At least eight months.
Speaker 2: So how did all of this unfold? We are going
Speaker 2: to get to the bottom of it in today's Deep Dive.
Speaker 3: But before we get there, Zara. What is making headlines today.
Speaker 1: A group of defense personnel who led Australian commands in
Speaker 1: Afghanistan have been stripped of their service medals. It comes
Speaker 1: after the twenty twenty two Brereton Inquiry found evidence of
Speaker 1: alleged war crimes within Australia's Special Forces from twenty five
Speaker 1: to twenty sixteen. Ben Roberts Smith was among those investigated
Speaker 1: by the inquiry, which identified the unlawful killing of thirty
Speaker 1: nine people in Afghanistan by or involving the Australian Defense Force.
Speaker 1: The inquiry recommended several leaders have their Defense service medals revoked.
Speaker 1: On Thursday, Defense Minister Richard Miles wrote to a group
Speaker 1: of EIGHTYF commanders notifying them that they would be stripped
Speaker 1: of their honors over the alleged war crimes.
Speaker 2: Nine CEO Mike'snesby has announced he will step down from
Speaker 2: the position at the end of the month. In a
Speaker 2: statement to the ASX, Sneezbey said quote, it has been
Speaker 2: a privilege to lead this business, but now is the
Speaker 2: right time to hand over to a new leader. Sneezbee
Speaker 2: was appointed to the role three.
Speaker 3: And a half years ago.
Speaker 2: His departure comes after nine announced it was cutting two
Speaker 2: hundred jobs, mostly in the publishing division earlier this year.
Speaker 2: Current Chief Finance and Strategy Officer Matt Stanton will act
Speaker 2: as the CEO from next month while the search for
Speaker 2: a permanent replacement takes place.
Speaker 1: The US government has announced new security measures for the
Speaker 1: certification process of its next president in response to the
Speaker 1: January six riots. The attack on the US Capitol in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one aimed to stop the certification of President
Speaker 1: Biden after he beat Trump in the twenty twenty election.
Speaker 1: The Secret Service has confirmed that the twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: inauguration process, which will see either Kamla Harris or Donald
Speaker 1: Trump confirmed as US president, will have heightened security. A
Speaker 1: statement from the Federal Law Enforcement Agency said the measures
Speaker 1: are part of an effort to quote ensure the safety
Speaker 1: and security of the event and its participants.
Speaker 2: And today's good news, an American cyclist has become the
Speaker 2: fastest woman to circumvent the world by bike. It took
Speaker 2: ultracyclists Lalel Willcox one hundred and eight days, twelve hours,
Speaker 2: and twelve minutes to cover an area of nearly thirty
Speaker 2: thousand kilometers. Willcox beat a twenty eighteen record set by
Speaker 2: Scottish cyclist Jenny Graham By sixteen days after finishing the
Speaker 2: journey in Chicago, the new world record holder said she
Speaker 2: felt like she could have just kept riding forever.
Speaker 1: So, Billy, I have completely and utterly missed this story.
Speaker 1: And normally that would be because I have just not
Speaker 1: had time to read up on it. I have actively
Speaker 1: ignored this story because and some soclabaturing a full podcast
Speaker 1: because it makes me feel so claustrophobic thinking about this story. However,
Speaker 1: I'm going to let you indulge and let me know
Speaker 1: a bit about these astronauts who are stuck in space.
Speaker 1: But for people like me who perhaps have been keeping
Speaker 1: away from this story, whether consciously or subconsciously, what have
Speaker 1: they missed?
Speaker 2: I fear I'm only going to make you feel more claustrophobe. Excellent,
Speaker 2: so hopefully not.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So this all starts with Boeing, who you will likely
Speaker 2: recognize as the US plane manufacturer who are behind many
Speaker 2: of the world's commercial flights. Now, as you probably know,
Speaker 2: they have had a bit of a rough year so euphemism, yes,
Speaker 2: adore on one of their aircraft fell off. They also
Speaker 2: had their CEO quit. They've just been at the center
Speaker 2: of several different stories, mainly around safety concerns of their aircraft. Now,
Speaker 2: the reason that we are talking about them today is
Speaker 2: because of what they're trying to do in space. So
Speaker 2: this whole thing revolves around Boeing wanting to test their
Speaker 2: first crude spacecraft. So they wanted to send peop people
Speaker 2: into space on one of their own spacecrafts for the
Speaker 2: first time, and the intention of the launch was to
Speaker 2: test if Boeing's spacecraft, which is called Starliner, could become
Speaker 2: a safe, reliable, and sustainable way to get to the
Speaker 2: International Space Station.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about the International Space Station
Speaker 1: in the second. I don't want to get too stuck
Speaker 1: into this, but I would say that it has to
Speaker 1: be said. Someone has to say that they have been
Speaker 1: in the news a lot this year because of safety
Speaker 1: on Earth, and now they are in the news for
Speaker 1: safety in space. And I'll just leave that there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, move on, I had to say it.
Speaker 2: I'm glad it was you were not made.
Speaker 1: Okay, but you mentioned they're the International Space Station.
Speaker 2: What is that? Yeah, some people might not be too
Speaker 2: familiar with the International Space Station because it's certainly not
Speaker 2: close to home for any of us. So it's basically
Speaker 2: just a really large spacecraft that orbits Earth. I saw
Speaker 2: a fact before that it orbits Earth every ninety minutes.
Speaker 2: So it's going very fast, very very fast. And it
Speaker 2: is where astronauts basically just live in space. It's as
Speaker 2: big as a football field and it can house a
Speaker 2: crew of six people plus visitors, so really large. They
Speaker 2: basically eat there, they sleep there, they go to the
Speaker 2: toilet there, they can go to the gym there, like
Speaker 2: it's basically its own little community and people have been
Speaker 2: living there in space since the first crew arrived in
Speaker 2: two thousand.
Speaker 1: Okay, and so Boeing is sending their first crewed spacecraft there.
Speaker 1: Who are the people on board this spacecraft?
Speaker 2: So there were two astronauts on board. Their names are
Speaker 2: Barry Wilmore who is also known as Butch, and also
Speaker 2: Sanita Williams. They are NASA astronauts, So essentially Boeing provides
Speaker 2: the spacecraft and NASA provides the astronauts. And this is
Speaker 2: both of their third times venturing to the International Space Station,
Speaker 2: so they're basically veterans of the industry. Now, this story
Speaker 2: actually begins a long time ago. NASA first awarded a
Speaker 2: contract two Boeing in twenty fourteen, so ten years ago
Speaker 2: to provide crew transport vehicles to the International Space Station. Now,
Speaker 2: there have been lots of things that have happened in
Speaker 2: the past decade, but we're going to pick the story
Speaker 2: up this year. When the star Liner was first meant
Speaker 2: to launch in May. Now, that launch failed, and it
Speaker 2: was then followed by a second launch attempt on the
Speaker 2: first of June, and that also failed. But then on
Speaker 2: the fifth of June, so we're talking fifth of June
Speaker 2: this year, the launch was finally successful.
Speaker 4: Three two one ignition and liftoff of Starliner and Atlas
Speaker 4: five caring two American heroes.
Speaker 2: And the astronauts landed at the International Space Station just
Speaker 2: days after they launched, and it was live streamed at
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 5: Lots of cheering here in the realm. Big hugs Sunny
Speaker 5: William coming through in her blue flight suit and followed
Speaker 5: shortly behind by commander of Starliner, Butcher Wilmore.
Speaker 3: Now back on the space station, the third visit for
Speaker 3: both astronauts and.
Speaker 2: The first crude flight test of the Starliner spacecraft. I
Speaker 2: wish listeners could see the footage of them arriving at
Speaker 2: the International Space Station. You can literally just see how
Speaker 2: happy they are to have safely arrived. They literally dancing,
Speaker 2: They're snapping their fingers, They're being embraced by.
Speaker 4: Listeners.
Speaker 2: Can't see, but Sara just decided to snap their fingers cue.
Speaker 2: They are being embraced by the astronauts who are already there,
Speaker 2: and it was just a really joyous moment, and they
Speaker 2: looked quite relieved again to arrive safely. Now at this stage,
Speaker 2: Sinita and Butch thought that they would be there for
Speaker 2: about a week. Spoiler they were not okay.
Speaker 1: So I haven't felt claustrophobic at any point yet, but
Speaker 1: I fear that we are entering that territory very soon.
Speaker 1: How long after that moment that you just played did
Speaker 1: these two astronauts first understand that something wasn't right?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think the whole time it always kind
Speaker 2: of seemed like nothing was kind of going to plan
Speaker 2: for Boeing. Like I said before, they had two failed
Speaker 2: launchers before they were even able to leave Earth, and
Speaker 2: that's only this year. There have been several issues in
Speaker 2: the past decade, but when they were on their way
Speaker 2: from Earth to the International Space Station, more issues arose.
Speaker 2: So whilst they were traveling, NASA and Boeing identified helium
Speaker 2: leaks and also issues with the reaction control thrusters. Now
Speaker 2: full transparency. You might not know this sor up, but
Speaker 2: I'm actually not an engineer's shocking, So I'm not going
Speaker 2: to try to explain what exactly that means. But I
Speaker 2: think all we need to know is is not good. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was not safe for them to come home at
Speaker 2: that point as was planned, and so their return to
Speaker 2: Earth starts to get delayed, and then it gets delayed again,
Speaker 2: and then it got delayed.
Speaker 1: Again, and so it's at that point the media starts
Speaker 1: to pick up on this story and starts to report
Speaker 1: that the astronauts are stuck in space, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the media was definitely quick to raise questions
Speaker 2: about if these astronauts were stuck in space, but NASA
Speaker 2: and Boeing really quickly denied this one seeing in NASA
Speaker 2: employee Stephen Hershan, he called it outright sensationalism from the
Speaker 2: media and said that they were only extending the mission
Speaker 2: to collect more data. And they basically said journalists are
Speaker 2: not engineers and so they don't really know what they
Speaker 2: are talking about. Now, in July, one thing that they
Speaker 2: did to prove that the astronauts were okay was hold
Speaker 2: a press conference. They can hold press conferences from space
Speaker 2: if you didn't know, so Sanita and Butsch took questions
Speaker 2: from journalists from space.
Speaker 6: We've been thoroughly busy up here, integrated right into the crew.
Speaker 6: Every about once a week we get to jump into
Speaker 6: Starliner and talk to our control team there and work
Speaker 6: through all the new. Nuances are that they're working very
Speaker 6: hard on the ground to make sure that we will
Speaker 6: be able to come home before.
Speaker 2: So again, that was in July, and at that point
Speaker 2: they thought that they would be returning within weeks, and
Speaker 2: they also thought that they would be returning on the
Speaker 2: star Liner. So the messaging was basically, we're just fixing
Speaker 2: a few things, but we'll see you.
Speaker 1: Soon, okay. And so what happened from.
Speaker 2: There so next, so basically going through a timeline here.
Speaker 2: So then in August, Boeing and NASA announced that the
Speaker 2: star Liner will be returning home in early September, but
Speaker 2: without Butcher and Sneda. So Butch and Santa will be
Speaker 2: staying in space, but the star Liner is umming yay,
Speaker 2: And they basically just said, and I'm paraphrasing, this wasn't
Speaker 2: their exact wording, but they said it wasn't safe for
Speaker 2: the astronauts to return on the star Liner and that
Speaker 2: they didn't want to take that risk. So the new
Speaker 2: plan was for star Liner to come home and then
Speaker 2: for a different spacecraft, one owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX,
Speaker 2: would be sent to then pick them up. Just days
Speaker 2: after they announced that, we then find out that one
Speaker 2: of the astronauts, Butch, he is hearing a weird noise
Speaker 2: coming from the star Liner.
Speaker 4: It's a strange noise coming through the speaker.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's making it, but I don't know
Speaker 1: for something that's maybe connected between.
Speaker 4: Here and there making that happen.
Speaker 1: And we can configure that.
Speaker 4: Butcher, give us a minute and I'll call you back
Speaker 4: when it's ready.
Speaker 3: All right, Butch, that one came through so eerie.
Speaker 2: I feel like if I was at home by myself
Speaker 2: and I heard that, that his torture, I would hate that.
Speaker 2: Imagine being in space and hearing that.
Speaker 1: That's like when a fire alarm goes off in your
Speaker 1: office but it's not a real emergency, and then you
Speaker 1: just have to sit through it. That's what that sounds like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I imagine that's why they are probably astronauts,
Speaker 2: because they probably come in those situations.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 2: NASA later said about a week later that the noise
Speaker 2: had stopped and that it was common to experience noise,
Speaker 2: and they basically said they weren't any large concerns there.
Speaker 1: I must say that, you know, I think for us
Speaker 1: this all feels so novel and so new, but you know,
Speaker 1: these people spend their whole lives preparing for experiences like this,
Speaker 1: and we now just have so much more access and
Speaker 1: so much more information, you know, to be able to
Speaker 1: hear sounds like that, and I'm sure astronauts have been
Speaker 1: hearing that, you know, every time, or at least some
Speaker 1: of the time. I do want to just pick back
Speaker 1: up on the timeline that you're mentioning. So you said
Speaker 1: that the astronauts were going to be staying in space,
Speaker 1: but the star liner was going to be returning. Has
Speaker 1: it returned yet?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Literally, this week the star liner arrived safely back on
Speaker 2: Earth in New Mexico.
Speaker 4: There you go.
Speaker 1: Star liner has touched down.
Speaker 2: So star liners safely landed. But the astronauts they are
Speaker 2: still in space.
Speaker 1: If someone's not been listening to this whole podcast and
Speaker 1: there's you know, starting to focus just now at the
Speaker 1: very end, is the too long didn't read of this
Speaker 1: podcast that the astronauts are stuck in space?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it literally depends what your definition
Speaker 2: of stuck is.
Speaker 1: My definition of stuck is being in space with no
Speaker 1: way of getting back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean NASA's narrow mind. I mean, NASA absolutely
Speaker 2: has not used that language or anything close to it,
Speaker 2: and they are still kind of just saying that the
Speaker 2: media is blowing this out of proportion. And they're saying
Speaker 2: that this was always a test, and that tests are
Speaker 2: never completely safe, and that they were kind of prepared
Speaker 2: for this.
Speaker 1: I mean that makes sense.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, though, if I was sent on a work
Speaker 2: trip for eight days and I wasn't able to come
Speaker 2: home for eight months, you bet I would be saying
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: Stuck or convenient for us too.
Speaker 2: But I'd be saying I was strounded, you know, whatever
Speaker 2: word described that I'm not able to come home, like
Speaker 2: I literally cannot get home.
Speaker 1: But those astronauts they aren't using that language either. So
Speaker 1: maybe it's us normies on Earth who are like projecting
Speaker 1: onto these people who fully understand the risks that they
Speaker 1: have taken and are okay with how it's played out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's us normies, but also maybe just us journalists
Speaker 2: in the media like you and I Zara. I think
Speaker 2: NASA would say that we're part of the problem.
Speaker 1: On that note, are we expecting them still to return
Speaker 1: in February?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's absolutely the plan for them to be home
Speaker 2: early next year. I think no matter what, whenever they
Speaker 2: do get home and when they do safely return home, there.
Speaker 3: Will be a very warm welcome for them, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Billy. Thank you for explaining that in a way that
Speaker 1: didn't make me feel deeply uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of
Speaker 2: The Daily Oz, whether you're on Apple or Spotify, or
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Speaker 3: Tomorrow.
Speaker 4: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Adunda
Speaker 4: Bungelung Caalguton woman from Gadighl country.
Speaker 2: The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
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