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When astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore left Earth for the International Space Station nearly three months ago, they searched their bags for a key piece of equipment. Conducting the inaugural crewed flight test on a Boeing Starliner spacecraft, they departed without their own toiletries and other personal comforts – expecting to return to Earth within a week or so.
They have now been on the space station for more than 11 weeks, however, and NASA announced on Saturday that they would remain there until early 2025. The uncertainty surrounding issues with its Starliner capsule prompted the space agency to tap SpaceX to step in. and return the astronauts to the Crew Dragon capsule instead.
So what exactly would Williams and Wilmore do for another five or six months in space?
Currently both are guests. They are not part of Expedition 71, the international crew of seven astronauts serving as the official crew of the space station. However, NASA has said that they have seamlessly integrated with the group, taking on daily tasks aboard the orbiting laboratory.
But now, Williams and Wilmore are expected to transition into full-time field crew members — joining the SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts, whose mission is scheduled to launch as early as September 24.
As part of Crew-9 and the formal tour, Williams and Wilmore will perform typical crew tasks, such as performing spaswalks outside the space station, maintaining the orbiting laboratory and conducting a tight schedule of science experiments.
And NASA has previously confirmed that Starliner astronauts are willing to make such a change.
“A few years ago, we made the decision – knowing that this was a test flight – to ensure that we had the appropriate resources, supplies and training for the crew, in case they had to be on ISS, on for any reason, for a longer period of time,” said Dana Weigel, NASA manager of the International Space Station Program, during an Aug. 7 briefing.
“Butch and Suni are fully trained,” Weigel added. “They are capable and current with EVA (spacewalks), with robotics, with all the things we need them to do.”
Joining Crew-9
SpaceX’s Crew-9 is a routine trip to the space station to replenish the expedition team. The mission was slated to fly with four astronauts.
Under NASA’s new plan, however, two of those astronauts will not make the trip. Instead the Crew Dragon spacecraft will be launched on its outward flight with only two people on board.
Ballast, or metal pods that act as dead weight, will fly alongside the two empty seats on Crew-9 to maintain Crew Dragon’s center of gravity, the space agency said during a news conference in early August explaining the contingency plan. .
The two Crew-9 astronauts will then join Williams and Wilmore aboard the space station, and the foursome will complete Expedition 72, which will also include Russian cosmonauts and is expected to begin in September after a transition period.
As is typical for regular missions to the space station, the Crew-9 astronauts will remain on board for about five to six months – leaving Williams and Wilmore in space for another half year on top of the nearly three months they’ve already spent there. space.
Once part of Crew-9, they will fall into a structured routine, with their days mostly mapped out by the hour.
Olympic Games in orbit
Already, the astronauts have fallen into some of that daily work. Recent updates from NASA stated that Williams and Wilmore have so far used their time for space station maintenance, inspecting hardware, organizing cargo, performing checks on Starliner, and assisting with science experiments and technology demonstrations.
On Friday, for example, Wilmore helped configure a new airlock, built by the US-based company Nanoracks, which will serve as a new door to help deploy satellites, experiments and other equipment.
Williams and Wilmore, however, also had opportunities for some fun in microgravity. NASA shared footage of the astronauts on July 26 passing around a plastic torch on the space station and mimicking Olympic events, including discus and pommel horse. (A key task for astronauts is to work out to avoid excess muscle and bone density while in space.)
Williams, for the record, has already proven chops as a standout space athlete.
In 2012, during an earlier trip to the International Space Station, she became the first person to complete a triathlon in space. Williams used a stationary bicycle, simulated swimming with a weight-lifting machine and ran on a treadmill with her attached to a harness so she wouldn’t float away.
That feat came after she ran alongside the Boston Marathon from the space station in 2007.
Williams and Wilmore logged a total of 500 days in space before launching on the Starliner test flight. Williams even said she cried after leaving the space station after her last mission in 2012, unsure if she would ever return.
“This flight is a dream come true for her,” said one NASA commentator during a June 5 live stream of the Starliner launch.
Extended periods in space
It is not uncommon for astronauts to find themselves on board the space station unexpectedly — for days, weeks or even months.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, for example, was slated to spend about six months aboard the International Space Station for his inaugural trip to low-Earth orbit beginning in September 2022. He instead logged 371 days in space after after discovering a refrigerant leak. coming from its original vehicle – a Russian Soyuz capsule – and attached to the orbital pole.
As a result of Rubio’s one-year stay, the US record for the most continuous days spent in orbit was set.
Astronauts regularly extend their stays on the station by days or weeks at a time for a variety of factors, including bad weather on Earth or other schedule adjustments.
That’s a suitcase
Flying to the space station without the suitcases they had packed may have complicated the comfort of the Starliner astronauts’ extended stay. NASA chose to remove their luggage from the spacecraft to make room for a much-needed pump to repair a malfunctioning toilet on board the space station.
The two astronauts may have finally gotten some relief after Northrop Grumman’s cargo replacement mission landed on the space station earlier this month.
“We like to keep our options open so we have some items like clothing … some personal food items for (Williams and Wilmore), things like that,” said Bill Spetch, NASA’s operations integration manager for the Station Program International Space, during a briefing.
And there’s no sign that food supplies are dwindling anytime soon. Packed for 8,200 pounds of science experiments and cargo on the Northrop Grumman ship was a food shipment that included meals and produce such as squash, radishes, carrots, blueberries, oranges, apples and coffee, according to Spetch.
Weigel also said Saturday that the space agency tends to keep about four months of food and water reserves on board the space station. And Northrop Grumman’s resupply mission helped replenish those reserves, leaving plenty of extra food on board for the ISS crew.
“No one had to go on a diet or restrict calories,” Weigel said.
Still, NASA said it had to make a quick decision about how Williams and Wilmore would return to Earth because the space station’s store of food and other resources is not limitless.
“Even though they’re up there, we’ve got extra staff, we’ve got extra hands, and they can do a lot more work. But they’re also using more consumables and more supplies,” Ken Bowersox, NASA’s associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate, said earlier this month.
“We need to get those people home and get back to normal crew size on the ISS,” Bowersox said.
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