Stranded in space? I’ll stick to solid ground

21 March 2025, 19:10 | Updated: 21 March 2025, 22:43

Every child dreams of being an astronaut, but the reality is far from the childhood fantasy.

Space travel is often sold as a glamorous adventure, but imagine being stuck on the International Space Station, watching the Earth spin below while wondering when - or even if - you’ll make it back.

That’s exactly what happened to NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams.

Their trip to the ISS was meant to be short, but thanks to technical issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, they were stranded in space for nine months.

Can you think of anything worse than being trapped hundreds of miles above Earth with no clear return date?

Space is sometimes portrayed as luxury travel, though it’s anything but. No showers, freeze-dried food, and vacuum toilets - I don’t even want to know how the intergalactic lavatory works.

Astronauts endure months of isolation, and in this latest case, with no idea when they’d be coming home.

And forget about personal space—you're crammed into a metal tube, constantly surrounded by colleagues, with zero privacy.

Then there’s the constant danger: radiation exposure, micrometeoroids, and the ever-present risk of catastrophic failure. One wrong move, one malfunction, and you’re just another floating piece of space debris.

Even the world’s richest men can’t get it right - rockets from billionaire-backed companies keep exploding. So why would I trust commercial space travel?

The human cost of space travel is massive, especially when things go wrong. Just ask Wilmore and Williams.

Their nine-month ordeal proves how unpredictable it all is.

They were stranded due to technical failures, left waiting nearly a year for a way home.

Their families must have been worried sick.

And when they did finally return, the struggle wasn’t over. Wilmore’s daughter described how he was having trouble adjusting to gravity. Williams showed worrying signs of physical strain - more frail than before, and even her hair had turned grey.

If trained astronauts suffer this much, what chance does the average space tourist have?

Billionaire space travel is nothing more than an ego trip, while real problems on Earth, like poverty and world hunger, remain untackled.

Imagine what could be achieved if all that money was spent fixing the world we actually live in.

We shouldn’t be pouring billions - especially public money - into Mars missions when we can’t even solve the crises we have here.

Let’s be honest: do you really trust Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos with your life?

Space travel might sound exciting, but the recent near-disaster proves otherwise.

Some dream of the stars, but I’m perfectly happy keeping my feet on solid ground.

If I want to see the planet from above, I’ll stick to Google Earth - no spacesuit required.

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The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

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