Russians call on Putin to rescue stranded space station astronauts

“We ask you to help them.”

Hey Putin

A group of Russian seniors recently came together to deliver an unusual message to Russian President Vladimir Putin: Bring those American astronauts home!

“There are two American astronauts in space right now,” says a man in a Telegram video posted by Ars-Technicareferring to the astronauts who are currently stranded due to technical problems during their transport to the International Space Station, Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft.

“They’ve been in trouble for two months,” he continued, flanked by four women in the video. “Their Boeing broke down en route. The engines failed, but somehow they made it to the International Space Station. And now they don’t know how to get back. We’re asking you to help them.”

The video released on Monday is apparently part of a long propaganda series, according to Arsin which a group of randomly selected older Russians comment on random topics, like how Russia should retake Alaska or make unfounded accusations that the Americans bombed the Nord Stream pipeline.

The videos are a sad example of staged propaganda, apparently aimed at a domestic audience and intended to boost Putin’s image and the Russian space program. But in this particular case, they actually have a ring of truth.

Race in space

However, NASA and the Russian space program work closely together to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station and to conduct joint unmanned supply transports.

Yet when it comes to NASA’s response to Boeing’s problems, Russian help was not mentioned once. And it looks like the two stranded American astronauts will stay for several months and may return home in a SpaceX capsule instead.

We can only speculate about Putin and his security apparatus’s reasoning for forcing a group of high-ranking citizens to discuss the waste of money in building the Boeing Starliner, but it is clearly a risk-free move that strengthens the Russian space program while simultaneously denigrating American efforts in space.

Apart from the problems with the Starliner, the video obscures the true picture of space: America is once again on the rise and is in a race with the superpower China when it comes to influence and ambitions in space.

And Russia, despite its long history in space, is making slow progress.

More about the Boeing Starliner: Boeing employee says he is not surprised astronauts were stranded in space due to the company’s Starliner spacecraft