Let's talk space travel — or as I like to call it, space-Uber.
SpaceX — Elon Musk's rocket company that's basically NASA with way better Wi-Fi — just sent a Dragon capsule to the International Space Station to play space-Uber for two astronauts who've been stranded, horror-movie style.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams went up to the ISS on Boeing's shiny new Starliner capsule back in June. It was supposed to be a quick 8-day trip to prove that Boeing could do it, but — surprise, surprise — something went wrong.
Boeing's Starliner capsule — after being delayed more than an American Airlines flight from Dallas — finally got its chance to shine ... and promptly had more glitches than Windows Vista. Leaky helium, malfunctioning thrusters — it's like they built this thing out of Ikea parts and crossed their fingers (DEI policies really will be the death of us).
Eventually, NASA sort of gave up, leaving Butch and Suni up there like a space version of Tom Hanks in Cast Away.
But SpaceX was there to come to the rescue! With NASA's Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov on board, they made it up there on the second try, after the first launch was delayed by Hurricane Helene.
With hurricanes wreaking havoc on the ground, somehow, SpaceX still managed to show up on time (take notes, American Airlines).
Thanks to SpaceX, we now have a fully functioning crew up at the ISS, with plans to bring Butch and Suni back down to Earth in February.
Not only that, SpaceX is flying circles around Boeing, despite receiving a $2.6 billion contract with NASA compared to Boeing's $4.2 billion!
But hey, while workers are too busy striking, it's not a surprise when doors fall off every now and again, right?
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