Gilligan's Spacecraft -- Part II & III

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Part II 

Oh, this is part two of a tale of a fateful trip....

The Storm-Wrecked Minnow -- CBS TV
In Part 1, we compared the Boeing capsule's crew to the passengers on the fictional S.S. Minnow who were supposed to have taken a "three hour tour" and ended up being "stranded" for years. 

On June 6, NASA and Boeing sent a two person crew to the International Space Station for an eight day tour, an eight day tour. Now, according to NBC News, the Boeing crew may be stranded until February!
Wall Street Journal

Perhaps I shouldn't make fun of this serious (I'd hate to be one of the astronauts), and possibly dangerous, situation but NASA's constant "just a few days later" public relations messaging over the last two months reminds me of another piece of aviation history.

Maybe, as government agencies never seem to learn, it would be smarter to tell the truth from the beginning rather than engage -- using our tax dollars -- in weeks of evasiveness. 

I would write more but I haven't been able to make "5,904 hour tour" to rhyme.... with anything.

From an online comment:
Part III

Here's an interesting column on this topic regarding Boeing's handling of this. It says, in part,

Boeing Starliner program manager Mark Nappi told the New York Times earlier this week that it's no surprise that the company's Starliner crewed flight test is taking longer than expected — so far, almost ten times longer than expected. NASA astronauts Butch Williams and Suni Wilmore are on Day 77 of their eight-day stay aboard the International Space Station.

Mr. Nappi, on LinkedIn was critical of my piece comparing Boeing's situation to Gilligan's Island. Since then, an additional couple of weeks have passed. Saturday, NASA is going to have a press conference (day of the week when most of the primaryMSM correspondents have the day off) about the situation. I suspect Butch and Suni will be coming back on SpaceX. 

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