NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have spent seven months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), waiting for a delayed return to Earth. Originally scheduled to leave in June, technical issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft have pushed their rescue to March 2025 at the earliest.
The extended stay hasn’t dampened their spirits. “It’s just been a joy to be working up here,” Williams said during a call with NASA. “It doesn’t feel like we’re cast away. 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.”
The pair remain busy, conducting scientific experiments and preparing for spacewalks, but life in space comes with quirks. Wilmore described wearing the same clothes for weeks due to limited supplies. “Clothes fit loosely up here. It’s not like on Earth where you sweat and it gets bad,” he said. “So, you can wear things honestly, for weeks at a time, and it doesn’t bother you at all.”
Concerns have arisen about Williams’ health after images suggested potential muscle loss, a known effect of microgravity. Wilmore reassured the public, saying, “We are well-fed.”
Williams is set to embark on a pivotal spacewalk on January 16 alongside astronaut Nick Hague. The mission will address a critical “light leak” in the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) X-ray telescope, which has been disrupting its ability to study cosmic phenomena like black holes and neutron stars since May 2023.
Williams has been preparing the Quest airlock and spacesuits for this operation, which marks the first-ever servicing of an X-ray telescope in orbit. To resolve the issue, specially designed pie-shaped patches will be installed over damaged thermal shields, blocking sunlight and restoring NICER’s capacity to collect data uninterrupted.