NASA astronauts stranded in space until 2025 speak out on ‘uncomfortable’ issues with spacecraft
Astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station have spoken out about the issues they 'were not comfortable with'.
When NASA astronauts Suni Wiliams and Butch Wilmore first made the journey to space this year, they believed that they’d only be up there for eight days before returning home.
But spacecraft difficulties mean that the pair will now be stranded in space until 2025 - however, a return date is yet to be announced.
The astronauts have faced technical problems with the Boeing Starliner capture, which has noted issues with its thrusters as well as helium leaking.
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This means it could be too unsafe for the two to make a return trip until next year.
They’ve answered a lot of questions regarding how 'concerned' they feel and what they've been doing to occupy themselves, however, they've recently opened up about 'some changes that need to be made'.
Wilmore, 61, explained that although there are issues, he feels ‘very fortunate’ to be on the ISS right now before being able to make the safe journey home when the SpaceX Crew Dragon arrives in February.
As per The Independent, he said: “Obviously, when you have issues like we’ve had, there’s some changes that need to be made. Boeing’s on board with that. We’re all on board with that.
"Starliner’s crewed test flight was meant to push the edge of the envelope. …"And when you do things with spacecraft that have never been done before, just like Starliner, you’re going to find some things.
“In this case, we found some things that we just could not get comfortable with putting us back in the Starliner.”
He added: "“There’s many cases in the past where there have not been other options.
“We were very fortunate that we have the Space Station and that we had the option to stay and we had the option to come back a different way.”
Wilmore believes that if the NASA crew had more time to figure things out, then they would have been able to return home using the Boeing Capsule, adding: “I think the data could have gotten there.
"We could have gotten to the point, I believe, where we could have returned on Starliner. But we just simply ran out of time.”
Despite fears over the safety of the pair, the Starliner managed to return to Earth on 6 September without a hitch.
According to reports, while the two were in the Capsule, there were issues with propulsion and orientation, however, these issues didn’t affect the craft when it touched down in New Mexico.
They even reported hearing a strange noise, which NASA have since confirmed the source of the noise to be speaker.
Now, the two astronauts will have to wait nearly eight months before they can return home, which means they’ll also miss Christmas with their families this year due to the issues faced up in space.
But Wilmore isn’t too phased and explained that it didn’t take him too long to adjust to the change of plans.
He said: “I’m not gonna fret over it. I mean, there’s no benefit to it at all. So my transition was — maybe it wasn’t instantaneous — but it was pretty close.”
His crewmate, Williams also told CNN that space is her ‘happy place.’
Britt Jones