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When astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore left Earth for the International Space Station nearly three months ago, they left behind their bags for a critical piece of equipment. They were leading the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, and they left 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, and NASA announced Saturday that they will remain there until early 2025. Uncertainty over problems with their Starliner capsule prompted the space agency to call on SpaceX and send the astronauts back to a Crew Dragon capsule instead.
What exactly would Williams and Wilmore do during the next five or six months in space?
Currently, the two are guests. They are not part of Expedition 71, the international crew of seven astronauts who serve as the official staff of the space station. However, NASA has said they have seamlessly integrated with the group and have taken up daily duties aboard the space laboratory.
But now Williams and Wilmore are expected to join the expedition as full-time crew members, joining SpaceX’s Crew-9 astronauts, who are expected to begin their mission as early as September 24.
As part of Crew-9 and the formal expedition, Williams and Wilmore will perform typical crew duties, such as conducting spacewalks outside the space station, maintaining the space laboratory and carrying out a tight schedule of science experiments.
NASA has previously confirmed that the Starliner astronauts are prepared to make such a move.
“A few years ago we made the decision — knowing this was a test flight — to make sure we had the right resources, supplies and training for the crew, in case for some reason they needed to stay on the ISS for an extended period of time,” Dana Weigel, NASA's manager of the International Space Station Program, said during an Aug. 7 briefing.
“Butch and Suni are fully trained,” Weigel added. “They're capable and up to date with EVA (spacewalks), with robotics, with all the things we expect them to do.”
Join Crew-9
SpaceX's Crew-9 is a routine trip to the space station to supplement the expedition crew. The mission would fly with four astronauts.
Under NASA's new plan, however, two of those astronauts will not make the trip. The Crew Dragon spacecraft will instead depart on its outbound flight with just two people on board.
Ballast, or pieces of metal 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 detailing the contingency plan.
The two Crew 9 astronauts will then join Williams and Wilmore aboard the space station. Together, they will form the cast of Expedition 72, which will also include Russian cosmonauts. The expedition is expected to begin in September after a handover period.
As is typical for routine missions to the space station, the Crew 9 astronauts will remain on board for about five or six months. Williams and Wilmore will therefore remain in space for another six months, in addition to the nearly three months they have already spent in space.
Once they become part of Crew-9, they fall into a structured rhythm, with their days largely divided by hour.
Olympic Games in orbit around the Earth
The astronauts have already gotten into some of that daily work. According to recent updates from NASA, Williams and Wilmore have spent their time so far maintaining the space station, inspecting hardware, organizing cargo, performing checks on Starliner, and assisting with science experiments and technical demonstrations.
On Friday, for example, Wilmore helped configure a new airlock, built by the American company Nanoracks, which will serve as a new gateway for deploying satellites, experiments and other equipment.
Williams and Wilmore have had chances to have some fun in microgravity, though. NASA shared footage July 26 of the astronauts passing around a plastic flashlight on the space station and simulating Olympic events, including discus throwing and pommel horse riding. (Exercising is a key task for astronauts to avoid losing too much muscle and bone density in space.)
Williams has already proven that she is an excellent space athlete.
In 2012, during a previous trip to the International Space Station, she became the first person to complete a triathlon in space. Williams used a stationary bike, simulated swimming on a weightlifting machine and ran on a treadmill while strapped in with a harness to keep her from floating away.
She achieved this feat after running the Boston Marathon from the space station in 2007.
Williams and Wilmore spent 500 days in space together before flying the Starliner test flight. Williams said she even cried after leaving the space station after her last mission in 2012, unsure if she would ever return.
“This flight is a dream for her,” a NASA commentator said during a livestream of the Starliner launch on June 5.
Long-term stay in space
It often happens that astronauts unexpectedly extend their stay on board the space station: by days, weeks or even months.
For example, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio was scheduled to spend about six months aboard the International Space Station for his first trip to low-Earth orbit, set to launch in September 2022. Instead, he spent 371 days in space after a coolant leak was discovered from his original flight — a Russian Soyuz capsule — while docked to the space station.
Rubio's year-long stay earned him an American record for the longest consecutive number of days in space.
Astronauts also regularly stay on the space station for days or weeks longer due to a variety of factors, such as bad weather on Earth or other changes in planning.
Without suitcase
Flying to the space station without the suitcases they had packed may have complicated the comfort of the Starliner astronauts’ extended stay. NASA decided to take their luggage off the spacecraft to make room for a much-needed pump to repair a malfunctioning toilet aboard the space station.
The two astronauts may finally have a reprieve after a Northrop Grumman cargo mission arrived at the space station earlier this month.
“We like to keep our options open, so we do have some supplies like clothing … some personal food items for (Williams and Wilmore), things like that,” Bill Spetch, NASA's operations integration manager for the International Space Station Program, said during a news conference.
And there’s no indication that food supplies will be running low anytime soon. Packed alongside the Northrop Grumman ship’s 8,200 pounds of science experiments and cargo was a food shipment of meals and produce such as squash, radishes, carrots, blueberries, oranges, apples and coffee, Spetch said.
Weigel also said Saturday that the space agency typically keeps about four months' worth of food and water reserves aboard the space station. And Northrop Grumman's resupply mission helped replenish those reserves, providing enough extra food for the ISS crew.
“No one has ever had to diet or restrict calories,” Weigel said.
Still, NASA said a decision had to be made quickly about how Williams and Wilmore would return to Earch because the space station's food supplies and other resources are not unlimited.
“While they're out there, we have extra crew, we have extra hands, and they can do a lot more work. But they're also using more consumables, 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 a normal crew size on the ISS,” Bowersox added.
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