Naga and Charlie speak with Nasa expert Ken Kremer
Naga Munchetty found herself in hot water during a chat with a NASA space expert on The BBC Breakfast.
The TV star, 49, was joined by her co-star Charlie Stayt as they interviewed no-nonsense scientist Dr Ken Kremer. He appeared on the programme via a video link in the studio damning reports that two astronauts were "stranded in space".
It was believed that NASA's Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams - who blasted off for what was supposed to be a short trip on June 5 - were now "stuck" in orbit. This after the pair seemingly failed to return home, nearly two-months on from when they first took off.
Eager to establish what was going on, Naga opened up the probe, asking Ken: "When people hear this story, are these astronauts in distress? Is there a real concern about what is going on because they've been up there much much longer than expected?"
Pointing out the inaccuracy with regards to her question, the expert shot back, slapping Naga down. He responded: "That's been much much exaggerated."
Shooting down the hosts' claims, Ken told her: "The astronauts are happy as clams to be up there. Astronauts are meant to be in space, that's what they want to do and they are not in any imminent danger, no."
He added: "Yes there are issues with the Boeing starliner with helium leaks and with the thrusters, but they've done testing of those systems in orbit to confirm that they work and that the astronauts can actually come home at any time."
The doctor in science explained that further testing had been carried out and declared: "They're not stranded, they're not stuck in space, they're happy to be where they are, they are contributing to science and the maintenance of the international space station so they are doing exactly what should have been done."
Ken did outline that the space trip hadn't been faultless and that there had been issues along the way. But from his professional viewpoint, everything was now in order and the biggest faux pas was actually due to NASA not providing an "open-ended" window for the spacecraft's return.
The initial target for the mission was just "one week" which the space expert told Naga and Charlie had been NASA's "biggest PR problem" after they'd continued to delay the return "every four days" in the beginning, until Ken stepped in to advise them otherwise.
He went on to tell the hosts in the BBC studio: "So that's why they have not announced a return date yet, because why? Those issues are in the service module and so that's the only way to find out what's wrong is to keep it in space.
"Once they separate and once they undock from the international space station they can't do any more testing on that service module because it burns up. It doesn't return, we don't get it back at the end of the mission so the only way to study it, is in space," detailed Ken.
The space researcher went on to finish up by further rubbishing the claims, commenting:"The astronauts are there and they've practiced coming home procedures and they've practiced turning on the spaceship so everything is great right now, really."
After the segment had concluded, Naga seemed to eat her words as she confessed to viewers at home: "So many reports of them being stuck and stranded. It's very easy to see it as a distress story but he said they're happy. 'Happy as clams' I think he said."
The take-down hadn't slipped under the radar of fans on X either, who claimed the BBC star had been left reeling after the conversation had finished. One fan tweeted:"#bbcbreakfast Naga gets slapped down by a NASA scientist and is left with a face like a smacked a**e." As another echoed: "Ken certainly told Naga #bbcbreakfast," along with a laughing emoji.
BBC Breakfast airs daily on BBC One from 6am and can be streamed via the iPlayer.
