Fasten your space helmets—the unfurling cosmic drama is truly historic! In an unexpected twist, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams have been ordered to continue orbiting Earth for another six months. This stunning decision, from what some sources are calling NASA’s “El Lasso” plan, keeps the two astronauts in “won’t go” mode and under the confines of the very good “news” that the unfurling trials of the Boeing-built CST-100 Starliner are not yet a full OK for the flybys it makes in the story of the Solar System. Butch and Sunny won’t fly home via Space Suite 500 until February 2024, if then. 

Boeing seems to be falling fast from grace, but it insists that its CST-100 Starliner is “safe enough.” Nevertheless, NASA has opted to use SpaceX’s Crew Dragon instead of Starliner for the first manned mission to the International Space Station since 2011. The choice may be seen as a substantial embarrassment for Boeing, potentially affecting the company’s long-term financial projections and short-term stock price, by some estimates, to a degree that could really hurt.

Boeing: Will the company meet the challenge and extricate itself from this convoluted situation? Or is SpaceX destined to become the new ruler of the orbital realm? Some questions may be unanswerable for now. But one thing is clear: The outcome of this celestial drama may have profound implications for the future of human spaceflight.