The husband of a female astronaut trapped aboard the International Space Station has said that she wouldn’t be disappointed if she were to become trapped in space. During a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, husband of astronaut Sunita Williams, Michael Williams, said that his wife being stuck on the space station wasn’t a problem for her, that space is her “happy place,” and that her delayed return to earth hasn’t troubled her one bit.
The story comes after the thrusters aboard the Boeing Starliner that Williams used to arrive on the space station back in June this year. Astronauts and engineers in charge of the project now face the difficult choice between waiting for a delayed return trip organized by Space X, which could well be sometime next year, or repairing the Boeing spacecraft and using it to return home sooner. The problem? Nobody really knows if they can properly fix the Boeing Starliner, and returning home would carry the risk of the astronauts aboard being killed.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been aboard the International Space Station for two months now, and this week they were given the news that their return could be delayed even further. According to a NASA contingency plan, which would utilize SpaceX technology, the two astronauts may be facing a return trip as far away as February next year. Should they choose this option, the astronauts would return home as part of SpaceX’s planned Crew-9 mission that will launch in September and return in February.
For as long as the international space community is able to arrange a return flight for the astronauts, they’re safe – but they’ll be aboard the International Space Station for substantially longer than their original intended stay of just eight days.
There also remains the possibility of a rescue mission that could be launched sooner than February. Should NASA find it necessary, engineers may scramble to find an alternative vessel to rescue the two astronauts on a shorter timeframe than the planned SpaceX launch.
