In what was the first public comments made by NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore after the space agency's announcement of their return on SpaceX's aircraft, the duo appreciated all the prayers and well wishes from back home.
The two astronauts have been stuck in space as their week-long stay in June has now turned into a more than 8-month-long stay. Suni and Butch are scheduled to return to earth in 2025.
Last week, the Boeing Starliner capsule, which carried them to the International Space Station in its maiden crew flight, returned to earth without Suni and Butch. NASA had said that given the issues encountered by Starliner, it would be too risky to bring the astronauts back home in it.
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In a press conference from the ISS, Butch said, "It was trying at times. There were some tough times all the way through." The two said that as spacecraft pilots, "you don't want to see it go off without you, but that's where we wound up".
The astronauts acknowledged that while they did not expect for their stay to become nearly a year-long, as Starliner's first test pilots, they somewhere knew that there could be issues that might delay their return to Earth. "That's how things go in this business," Sunita said.
Notably, the duo have made request for absentee ballots so that they can vote in the November 5 upcoming US presidential elections.
Sunita and Butch have now become full-fledged station crew members, chipping in on routine maintenance and experiments .
Butch said during the news conference that Sunita will take over command of the ISS in a few more days. This was the pair's second such address since their lift-off from Florida on June 5.
Earlier this week, Sunita, Butch and seven others on board the ISS welcomed a Soyuz aircraft carrying two Russians and an American, raising the current population at the station to 12.
Both retired Navy captains and longtime NASA astronauts, Sunita and Butch will welcome a SpaceX aircraft later this month. Two astronauts abroad the spacecraft will dock at the space station with two empty seats for the NASA duo to make the return journey in.
Given their earlier stints to the ISS, Sunita said that transitioning to station life was "not that hard". "This is my happy place. I love being up here in space," she said.
Meanwhile, Butch said if his transition was not instantaneous, it was "pretty close". Both the astronauts also said that they were missing their friends and families, but support from across the globe kept them going.
Boeing's Starliner capsule, which marked its first crew test flight, had met with thruster issues and helium leaks even before arriving at the space station on June 6. The capsule, made a return to the Earth last week, landing safely in the New Mexico desert. However, Boeing's path with the US space agency's commercial crew program in the future remains uncertain.
Notably, NASA had hired SpaceX and Boeing as an orbital taxi service a decade ago after the shuttles retired. SpaceX has been flying astronauts to space since 2020.
