CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Caught-in-space astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams mentioned Friday it was laborious to observe their Boeing capsule return to Earth with out them.
It was their first public feedback since final week’s return of the Boeing Starliner capsule that took them to the Worldwide Area Station in June. They remained behind after NASA decided the problem-plagued capsule posed an excessive amount of danger for them to journey again in.
“That’s the way it goes on this enterprise,” mentioned Williams, including that “it’s a must to flip the web page and take a look at the subsequent alternative.”
Wilmore and Williams are actually full-fledged station crew members, chipping in on routine upkeep and experiments. They together with seven others on board welcomed a Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American earlier this week, quickly elevating the station inhabitants to 12, a close to document.
The transition to station life was “not that onerous” since each had earlier stints there, mentioned Williams, who will quickly take over as station commander.
“That is my pleased place. I like being up right here in area,” she mentioned.
The 2 Starliner take a look at pilots — each retired Navy captains and longtime NASA astronauts — will keep on the orbiting laboratory till late February. They’ve to attend for a SpaceX capsule to carry them again. That spacecraft is because of launch later this month with a diminished crew of two, with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams for the return leg.
The duo mentioned they appreciated all of the prayers and nicely needs from strangers again residence. Wilmore mentioned he’ll miss out on household milestones reminiscent of being round for his youngest daughter’s ultimate 12 months of highschool.
Their Starliner capsule marked the primary Boeing spaceflight with astronauts. It endured a sequence of thruster failures and helium leaks earlier than arriving on the area station on June 6. It landed safely within the New Mexico desert earlier this month, however Boeing’s path ahead in NASA’s industrial crew program stays unsure.
The area company employed SpaceX and Boeing as an orbital taxi service a decade in the past after the shuttles retired. SpaceX has been flying astronauts since 2020.
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The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives help from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Academic Media Group. The AP is solely liable for all content material.
