US astronauts upbeat seven months into eight-day mission – Newz9

two US astronauts who’ve been caught for months on the International Space Station (ISS) stated Wednesday they’ve loads of meals, aren’t going through a laundry disaster, and do not but really feel like castaways.
veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams arrived on the ISS in June aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, and had been on account of spend solely eight days on the orbiting laboratory.
But issues with the Starliner’s propulsion system prompted NASA to vary plans, with a return flight now scheduled for late March on the earliest.
Williams stated spirits had been nonetheless excessive regardless of the unexpectedly lengthy keep in area.
“It’s just been a joy to be working up here,” he stated throughout a name with NASA officers.
“It doesn’t feel like we’re cast away,” he added. “Eventually we want to go home, because we left our families a little while ago but we have a lot to do while we’re up here.”
Wilmore chuckled whereas providing reassurance about meals provide.
“We are well fed,” he stated.
Laundry necessities are additionally not akin to Earth, he defined.
“Clothes fit loosely up here. It’s not like on Earth where you sweat and it gets bad. I mean, they fit loosely. So you can wear things honestly, for weeks at a time, and it doesn’t bother you at all, ” he stated.
After the propulsion issues developed, NASA in the end determined to return the spacecraft to Earth with out its crew, and to deliver the 2 stranded astronauts again house with the members of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
Crew-9’s two astronauts arrived on the ISS aboard a Dragon spacecraft in late September, with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams. The plan was for all 4 to return house in February 2025.
But the return was postponed final month when NASA introduced that Crew-10, which might relieve Crew-9 and the stranded pair, would now launch no sooner than March 2025, and each groups would stay on board for a “handover period.”
According to these timelines, Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to spend greater than 9 months in area.
“When we get home, we’ll have lots of stories to tell,” Williams stated.