CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, USA (AP) — The two NASA astronauts stranded on the International Space Station are just a few weeks away from finally returning to Earth after nine months in space.
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Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams must wait until their replacements arrive at the International Space Station next week before they can leave at the end of this month.
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They will be joined on their return journey with SpaceX by two astronauts who traveled on their own in September, along with two empty seats.
At a press conference held on Tuesday, Wilmore stated that, although politics is part of life, it did not influence his return nor that of Williams, which was moved up a few weeks thanks to a change in SpaceX capsules. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk of SpaceX said at the end of January that they wanted to expedite the return of the astronauts, blaming the previous administration.
However, Williams, in response to a question, expressed his disagreement with Musk’s recent proposal to get rid of the space station in two years, instead of waiting for its deorbiting, scheduled by NASA for 2031. He highlighted all the scientific research conducted in the orbiting laboratory.
“This place is functioning. It’s really amazing, so, in my opinion, we’re at our best,” said Williams, who has been at the space station on three occasions. “I would think that, probably, this is not the right time to give up and call it quits.”
Williams said he is eager to reunite with his Labrador dogs. He added that the hardest part of the stay, which was unexpectedly extended, was the wait for his family members at home.
“It has been a roller coaster for them, probably a bit more than for us,” he commented. “We are here. We have a mission. We are simply doing what we do every day, and each day is interesting because we are in space and it’s a lot of fun.”
Wilmore and Williams expected to be out only for a week when they took off last June aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, which was making its crewed debut after years of delays. The Starliner had so many problems reaching the space station that NASA determined it was too dangerous to carry humans and returned empty.
Their return home was further delayed by the additional time required to complete SpaceX’s new capsule, which was supposed to transport their replacements.
Last month, NASA announced that the next crew would travel in a used capsule, bringing forward the launch to March 12. The two crews will spend approximately a week together aboard the space station before Wilmore and Williams depart with Nick Hague, from NASA, and Alexander Gorbunov, from the Russian Space Agency.
Wilmore and Williams —retired Navy captains and recurring space travelers— have insisted that they are in good health and remain committed to the mission for as long as necessary. Together, they conducted a spacewalk in January.
They will wear generic SpaceX flight suits for the return trip, rather than the custom suits with their names, because their journey home on a Dragon capsule was unplanned. That’s fine with them, although Wilmore hinted that he might use a pen to write his name on his suit.
“We’re just Butch and Suni,” said Williams. “Now, everyone knows who we are.”