Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams, who is stuck on the International Space Station (ISS), today said it was her “happy place” and that she “loves” being up there. Ms Williams and her fellow NASA colleague Butch Wilmore on June 5 took off aboard the Boeing’s Starliner as part of the vessel’s first crewed mission, in what was originally meant to be eight days in orbit. Their stay, however, has been stretched to eight months after the Starliner ran into several technical issues and returned to Earth without them last week.
“That’s how things go in this business,” Sunita Williams said in a video press conference on being stuck in the space.
Ms Williams said the transition to station life was “not that hard” since both astronauts had previous stints there.
“This is my happy place. I love being up here in space,” the veteran astronaut said.
“We wanted to take Starliner to the completion and land back on land at home, but you know, you have to turn the page and look at the next opportunity,” she added.
LIVE: From the @Space_Station, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams discuss their ongoing mission and answer questions from the media: https://t.co/ytifGf22Gn
— NASA (@NASA) September 13, 2024
Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore are scheduled to return in February with the Crew-9 flight of billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Ms Williams said she was a little bit nervous that she was not returning home immediately.
“In the back of my mind, there are folks on the ground who have some plans like my family…spending times with my mother. And I think I was fretting more about that. Like the things we had planned for this fall or winter…but everybody was on board and that prepared us,” she said.
Mr Wilmore said he was “absolutely not” let down by the decision to stay in space and indicated there were “disagreements” about how to handle the return.
“We could have gotten to the point, I believe, where we could have returned on Starliner, but we just simply ran out of time,” he said in the press conference.
“In this case, we found some things that we just could not get comfortable with putting us back in the Starliner when we had other options,” he added.
Sunita Williams, Butch Willmore To Vote In US Elections From Space
The two astronauts said they were looking forward to casting their ballot in the 2024 US presidential election from the International Space Station.
Butch Willmore said he has sent down his request for a ballot today.
“It is a very important role that we all play as American citizens,” he said. “NASA makes it very easy for us to do that.”
Sunita Williams also said it is a “very important duty”.
“Looking forward to vote from space, which is pretty cool,” she said.
The US elections – a fight between Democrat Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump – will be held on November 5.
Boeing’s Starliner Setbacks
After years of delays, Boeing’s Starliner finally lifted off on June 5 carrying Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, both former military test pilots, to the International Space Station. However, a day later, as Starliner was approaching the ISS, NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft’s reaction control thrusters.
Hugs all around! The Expedition 71 crew greets Butch Wilmore and @Astro_Suni aboard @Space_Station after #Starliner docked at 1:34 p.m. ET on June 6. pic.twitter.com/wQZAYy2LGH
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) June 6, 2024
Five of Starliner’s 28 thrusters failed during flight and it sprang several leaks of helium, which is used to pressurize the thrusters. It was still able to dock with the space station, which has housed rotating crews of astronauts for over two decades.
NASA, however, feared the capsule would not be able to achieve the thrust necessary to return to Earth and decided to transfer the two astronauts to a SpaceX mission and return the Starliner empty.
