The stranded NASA astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore are finally going to get to return to Earth after the SpaceX capsule scheduled to bring them home docked with the International Space Station (ISS).
It’s been a very long stay in space for the pair, who were only supposed to be on board the ISS for a few days last year but became stranded after technical issues with the capsule that was set to bring them to Earth left them stuck up there.
Granted, there are worse places to be than up in space, though the astronauts have admitted that they can feel that the prolonged period of time in space has had an effect on their bodies.
Early this morning (16 March) a SpaceX capsule docked with the ISS and brought four new crew members on board as part of the Crew-10 complement.
There’s now room for Wilmore and Williams to depart the space station along with fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
The capsule has docked with the ISS and the astronauts can come home now (NASA)
Wilmore and Williams won’t be leaving the ISS immediately, but they are scheduled depart on Wednesday (19 March) so barring further technological hitches in their return journey they’ll be back within a week.
When they do get back the astronauts will need to undergo a period of rehabilitation so their bodies can readjust to gravity once more.
A NASA spokesperson previously told LADbible: “All NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station undergo routine medical evaluations, have dedicated flight surgeons monitoring them, and are in good health.”
Going into space can weaken your bone density and lead to loss of muscle mass, so it’ll take some time before the pair are back in tip top condition.
While they have far outstayed the initial parameters of their mission to space, the pair have not been idle as they’ve taken the extra time to conduct a number of experiments in space.
Apparently they keep an alien mask around to scare new arrivals on the ISS (NASA)
But despite being in space for months when they were only meant to be there for a few days, Wilmore and Williams won’t be receiving overtime pay as retired NASA astronaut Cady Coleman revealed.
She explained that they’ll get a little bit of cash for ‘incidentals’ which won’t amount to much but otherwise they’ll be paid as normal as it’s basically just like a work trip.
Williams previously said that the long stay had been hardest on their families, saying: “It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little more so than for us.”
She later explained: “We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short. That’s what we do in human space flight.
“That’s what your nation’s human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”