Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stranded on the International Space Station for the past several months. Now Sunita Williams participated in a space call from Earth and said that the departure of the Boeing aircraft without her and spending several more months in orbit has been difficult for her.
This is her first public comment since the return last week of the Boeing Starliner capsule that carried her to the International Space Station in June. She remained in space after NASA decided it would be too risky to bring her back in the damaged capsule. Her eight-day mission could now last more than eight months.
‘This is my favourite place’
“This is my happy place. I love being here in space,” Williams said. Williams was upset for a while about losing the opportunity to spend precious time with her mother. Williams said she was excited to fly two different spacecraft on the same mission. “We are testers, that’s our job,” she said.
“We wanted to complete the Starliner and land it back in our country,” he said. “But you have to turn the page and look for the next opportunity.”
Williams said the transition to station life “wasn’t that hard” because the two had lived there before. Williams said they had done two long-term stays on the space station several years ago.
“As a spacecraft pilot, there were some tough times all the way. You don’t want to see it without you, but that’s the way it is,” Wilmore said from an altitude of 260 miles (420 kilometers). Though he didn’t expect to be there for nearly a year as Starliner’s first test pilot, he knew there could be problems that could delay his return. “That’s just the way things go in this profession,” Williams said.
Wilmore expressed disappointment that he would not be present for his youngest daughter’s final year of high school. Wilmore and Williams are now full station crew members, busy with routine maintenance and experiments. Wilmore told reporters during a press conference that Williams will take command of the space station in a few weeks. This is his second space trip after flying from Florida on June 5.
thanks to the people
The two also said that the astronauts appreciated all the prayers and well wishes they received from strangers in their country, which helped them deal with everything they would miss at home.
Emphasis on civic duty
They requested absentee ballots on Friday so they could vote in the November election from orbit. Both stressed the importance of fulfilling their civic duties as their mission continues.
The pair joined seven others welcomed to the space center earlier this week, including two Russians and an American. There are now 12 people at the space center. Two of these passengers will fly on SpaceX later this month. Also, two capsule seats will be kept free for the return of Wilmore and Williams.
Let us tell you that their Starliner capsule marked Boeing’s first space flight with astronauts. It suffered several thruster failures and helium leaks before reaching the space station on June 6. It landed safely in the New Mexico desert earlier this month, but Boeing’s future in NASA’s commercial crew program remains uncertain.
The space agency hired SpaceX and Boeing as orbital taxi services a decade before the shuttle was retired. SpaceX has been carrying passengers into space since 2020.
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