Due to a technical issue, the test flight of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station (ISS), originally scheduled for one week, will now extend to eight months. So, what will they be doing in the next 5-6 months in space?
Nearly three months ago, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore departed from Earth to the ISS on a mission called Crew Flight Test (CFT).
Nasa’s veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will remain at the ISS until February 2025 and return via a SpaceX vehicle.
However, after a technical incident, they are required to stay on the space station for more than 11 weeks, and recently NASA announced that these astronauts might have to remain there until early 2025.
So, what will they be doing in the next 5-6 months in space?
According to NASA, astronauts Williams and Wilmore will transition to full-time crew members, joining the SpaceX Crew-9 astronaut team. This group will begin its mission on September 24.
As members of Crew-9, they will undertake the usual crew responsibilities, such as conducting spacewalks, maintaining the laboratory in orbit, and following a rigorous scientific experimentation schedule.
So far, NASA reports that these astronauts have already participated in several routine tasks, including maintenance of the space station, hardware checks, cargo organization, testing the Starliner spacecraft, and supporting scientific experiments and technology demonstrations.
Additionally, the astronauts also have time to relax in microgravity conditions.
It is not uncommon for astronauts to unexpectedly extend their time on the space station by days, weeks, or even months.
Previously, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio was initially scheduled to spend about six months on the ISS during his first mission into low Earth orbit starting in September 2022, but ended up staying in space for 371 days after a coolant leak was discovered in the Russian Soyuz spacecraft connected to the ISS.
Rubio’s year-long mission set a record for the most consecutive days spent in orbit by an American.
