What’s going on with these supposedly stranded astronauts?

Last June, Astronauts Onens and Butch Wilmore went an eight -day trip to space. But their spaceship has not worked and they have been gone for eight months now and worked at the international space station and were waiting for firm plans to return to earth.

NASA apparently drives two astronauts in the orbit a scandal of gigantic proportions – and the president also proposed last week. Post of truth social That was Williams and Wilmore.Practically abandoned by the Biden administration ”and he had just asked Elon Musk (via his company SpaceX) to call them to. But the president said many things last week, and not everyone proved to be true.

In view of this, we had some questions: Are the astronauts actually stranded? And if not, why are you still in space? How do you stay busy? Who is to blame? I tried to reach the astronauts myself -they occasionally call interviews from the orbit -but a NASA spokesman lets me know that their media slots are filled. “Please check again if you are back on earth and maybe we can set up something, ”she wrote. Until thenWe called the astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell and Cady Coleman, a retired astronaut. You need to know the following.

Are the astronauts stranded?

The party line at NASA is that the astronauts are not stranded.

Then why are you still in space?

The supposedly stranded astronauts traveled to space on board a craft called Boeing Starliner. This trip was not as planned. Before docking at the space station, the Starliner began to get used. There were a few helium loses, and some of the engines (which help to control the ship) overheated and stopped.

This spaceship of $ 4.2 billion was “like my old, cheap car that I used to have,” says McDowell, who writes the long-term newsletter Jonathan’s space report. “You would have to codd it somehow to do his thing.” His point is that the starliner still worked, but the source of the problems was not entirely clear. As soon as the astronauts were safe on board the space station, NASA had to ask: Could the engines’ malfunction be a sign of a bigger problem that could endanger the life of the astronauts?

NASA decided to cautiously. Instead of returning Williams and Wilmore in a potentially compromised vehicle to Earth, the officials held them at the space station while they broke a plan to bring them home. Another crew was supposed to arrive at the space station in September, so NASA simply pulled two astronauts from this mission and left empty seats for Williams and Wilmore on her ship to bring a trip back to earth.

The thing is that the space station is completely occupied that someone had to replace the two astronauts that were pushed. Williams and Wilmore were the obvious choice because they were already in space. Now you are part of a regular ISS crew and end a six -month mission. You will return to Earth when you’re done, probably at some point this spring.

Oh, so you’re not stranded?

“It is much exaggerated, ”says McDowell over the discourse stranded astronaut. “Gir is fine. They only had to make an additional space that they love. You will come home the next time you drive. “

Apparently your situation is not even rare. McDowell says an additional month that is concerned with a mission is normal and a few additional months are not that unusual. In 2022, astronaut Frank Rubio went to the space station for a six -month mission, but then his spaceship was damaged, so that he stayed in space for over a year.

Are the astronauts miserable and angry?

From time to time the astronauts Call down to the earth for an interviewAnd they always seem to have been completely broken off – and to give it that they have a great time and that they do not feel cheated or stranded at all. Of course, these are well -trained, mission -oriented people who probably do not criticize their employer in the press, especially in orbit. Nevertheless, it is plausible that they are really good.

“Sometimes you can see in body language whether the astronauts are not really satisfied with what’s going on,” says McDowell, “but they seem to be pretty happy up there.” Coleman, a retired astronaut who worked at the space station for five months. Astronauts are waiting for missions for years so that they appreciate their time in space. “I would have spent six months up there in a minute,” she says, pointing out that she worked for NASA for 24 years, but was only 180 days in space.

What do the astronauts do with their additional time in space?

These astronauts work hard – 12 or more hours a day, says Coleman. They are planned almost up to the minute with a variety of tasks: maintaining the infrastructure of the space station, maintaining the computer systems up to date, the implementation of occasional space paths, training to maintain their muscle mass and practice for their trips at home . “The daily expectations are not so exciting,” says McDowell, “except that they can look out of the window and see the earth below.”

Of course, the core job of astronauts is science and collects data that cannot be preserved on Earth. Williams and Wilmore recently worked on experiments in which stem cell production for medicine, plant growth and 3D printing of metals are involved. Last week, Wilmore exchanged the outside of the ISS on a space to see whether terrestrial microbes could survive in space. These experiments often have a big impact on earth, says Coleman. For example, plant growth studies are intended to prepare NASA for Mars missions, but can also help to build food on earth-bound farmers on not so lower country.

And are these hard -working astronauts that have had countless overtime over time since their eight -day mission?

No, like every federal employee, the astronauts are paid on a business trip. You get your regular salary, no overtime, and NASA takes care of transport, accommodation and food. “There is a small amount of money a day for recordings that they are legally obliged to pay them,” says Coleman, remembering that it was about $ 4 a day for them. In other words, the astronauts could just as well be at a conference in Cincinnati.

Have the astronauts received the OPM memo of the OPM in space as a federal employee?

“I check,” said NASA spokesman. “I hope to have an answer after your deadline tomorrow.” She didn’t do it, but we will update you when this changes.

Apart from astronauts, who is this debacle worst for?

“Definitely Boeing,” says McDowell, as the problems with the Starliner “reinforce all other embarrassing things that Boeing aircraft and spaceships have happened in recent years.” There was the 737 Max crashes, the Alaska Airlines Jet, who lost a cabin plate in the middle of a flight, the satellite recently blown up. “You have a big picture problem,” says McDowell. And the Starliner “only contributes to the feeling that this air and space giant has lost its mojo.”

The situation is also embarrassing for NASA, and McDowell admits that the agency initially did not say very well, which led to continued confusion about the astronauts. But basically he believes that NASA looks good. “You look as if you were not a further accident in Columbia, as if you are careful and careful and put the safety of the astronauts first.”

And what does that mean for Elon Musk and SpaceX?

With the Starliner from the commission, the astronauts are intended to come home on board a SpaceX kite, which is ideal for Elon Musk. His company has been driving astronauts to and from the space station for four years. Boeing’s Starliner has not yet managed to bring a crew back and forth there. As McDowell puts it, SpaceX is Now “you look like the safe and reliable space.”

In order to be clear, the plan to bring the astronauts home in a SpaceX ship did not come together under Trump, despite what he claimed in the truth. Since September-Monate in front of Trump, which has been assumed by the crew 9 dragon at the space station and ready to bring the astronauts home.

The astronauts are expected again this spring. How will you stay healthy by then?

The schedule at the space station can be a grinding, so astronauts train for years. Before he went into space, Coleman made some preparation missions: wildness expeditions, an eleventh time in an underwater research laboratory and a trip to collect meteorites at the South Pole. “You will learn that the surrounding area will demand 100 percent of you and you have to find out how you can stay completely over a long period of time,” she says. “Creation of the room where you can be your best yourself is part of our job.”

On a Mission Station, says Coleman, there are “no big leisure component” – but the astronauts have a small place for fun. They call their families and friends, watch films and sports or play the Yamaha keyboard, which was applied to an early mission. People have “passion projects,” says Coleman – one of her crews was with photography and she brought out flutes from home. She loved calling her ten -year -old son and reading stories from space.

With regard to health, the cabins are also soundproof. So if astronauts feel annoyed or overwhelmed, they can always call at home and complain.

Could the astronauts in the meantime have some extraordinary experiences?

Coleman thinks that. Sometimes when the lights were dimmed in the laboratory and everyone else were in bed, she hovered alone around the space station. “It is almost as if they were a fish in an aquarium,” she says, “where it is a kind of dark and slide it through this wonderful place.” However, the best of all was in the dome, the window dome of the space station, from which astronauts can look into space or turn the earth below. “You can see a place you come and you can just swirl around and see how things start in the distance,” she says. “I think it’s a lot of comfort to go into the dome and see the earth.”