NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Indian-origin Sunita Williams on Friday said it was hard to watch their Boeing ride leaving back to Earth without them resulting in spending extra months at the International Space Station (ISS).
It was the first public reaction of Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williamsstuck in space since last week's return of Boeing’s Starliner that took them to the ISS in June. The US space agency decided to bring back the capsule without both astronauts as the problem-plagued capsule posed too much risk for them to ride back in.
“It was trying at times. There were some tough times all the way through,” NASA astronaut Wilmore said. As spacecraft pilots, “you don’t want to see it go off without you, but that’s where we wound up,” he added,
"That's how it goes in this business," said Sunita Williams, adding that "you have to turn the page and look at the next opportunity."
Both astronauts are now full-fledged station crew members, chipping in on routine maintenance and experiments. Williams will take over command of the space station in a few more weeks.
The duo, along with seven others on board, welcomed a Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American earlier this week, temporarily raising the station population to 12, a near record.
Two more astronauts are scheduled to fly up on SpaceX later this month; two capsule seats will be left empty for Wilmore and Williams for the return leg., a near record.
The transition to station life was “not that hard” since both had previous stints there, said Williams, who logged two long space station stays years ago.
“This is my happy place. I love being up here in space,” Williams added.
Wilmore noted that if his adjustment wasn’t instantaneous, it was “pretty close.”
The astronauts said they appreciate all the prayers and well wishes from strangers back home, and that it’s helped them cope with everything they’ll miss out on back home.
It is important to note that their Starliner capsule marked the first Boeing spaceflight with astronauts. It endured a series of thruster failures and helium leaks before arriving at the space station on June 6. It landed safely in the New Mexico desert earlier this month.
