- Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the two NASA astronauts who rode to the space station months ago on the Boeing Starliner, are slated to come home in late March.
- Also aboard the station are NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Don Pettit, as well as three Russian Cosmonauts.
- The four Americans spoke to USA TODAY in a wide-ranging interview about life on the space station, spacewalks and the innovative science research they conduct for future deep-space missions.
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the two NASA astronauts who rode to the cosmos months ago on a Boeing Starliner spacecraft, aren't really spending their days pining to return to Earth.
The saga of the two spacefarers has garnered no shortage of publicity since June, when Williams and Wilmore first arrived at the International Space Station for the Starliner's maiden crewed voyage. But while the conversation on Earth has focused on their delayed homecoming – with even President Donald Trump recently weighing in – the astronauts themselves don't seem preoccupied with thoughts of leaving their celestial digs.
In an exclusive interview Tuesday with USA TODAY, both Williams and Wilmore said their focus has been on conducting science experiments, participating in spacewalks – and, of course, soaking in as many sunset views of Earth as possible.
"We're here, we try to focus on the now, what’s taking place here, the important work that's going on, because it requires that," Wilmore said. "I try not to long for anything I don't have now and just fret over it – there’s no benefit to that."
Williams and Wilmore were among four American astronauts currently aboard the space station to speak Tuesday with USA TODAY's Dana Taylor, co-host of the publication's flagship podcast "The Excerpt." The full episode featuring the conversation will be available at 5 a.m. EST Sunday on USA TODAY's podcast and vodcast platforms.
Here are four takeaways from the interview, including the Starliner astronauts' thoughts on their extended orbital stay and reflections on those spectacular views of Earth.
Who are the Americans on the International Space Station?
All seven spacefarers aboard the International Space Station are members of Expedition 72, including three Russian Cosmonauts.
Here's a look at the four Americans who are living and working at the orbital research station:
- Suni Williams, the Commander of the expedition, who arrived June 5, 2024 on the Boeing Starliner's debut crewed flight test;
- Butch Wilmore, who arrived June 5, 2024 on the Boeing Starliner's debut crewed flight test;
- Don Pettit,who arrived Sept. 11, 2024 with Russians Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft;
- Nick Hague, who arrived Sept. 29, 2024 with Russian Aleksandr Gorbunov on a SpaceX Dragon capsule as part of the Crew-9 mission.
Astronauts are prepared for lengthy stays
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore weren't supposed to be at the International Space Station beyond a few days in June when they reached the orbital outposton the inaugural crewed flight test for Boeing's Starliner.
But NASA decided that the troubled spacecraft wasn't up to the task of reliably transporting them back to Earth, and so the Starliner undocked in Septemberwithout them,landing in the New Mexico desert.
Many have referred to the astronauts as being "stuck" or "stranded." Even President Trump this week said they'd been "abandoned."
But in the interview with USA TODAY, the veteran astronauts, who have both now been to space three times, said that their training and experience extensively prepared them for lengthy stays in orbit.
“Being deployed for a little while is not unusual for any of us and that’s part of the game," Williams said. "When you come to some place that’s a little bit different from home, you might not come home right away.”
The interview took place hours before Trump took to Truth Social to implore SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to "go get" the astronauts. While Musk acknowledged on his social media site X that he had readily agreed to the request, it was not immediately clear if the two had crafted a new plan different from the one put in place months ago.
Under the plan NASA announced in August, the astronauts are due to fly back as early as March on a SpaceX Dragon capsule. That spacecraft has been docked at the station since late September and hasn't yet returned for a simple reason: It's passengers, Hague and Gorbunov, are scheduled for a six-month science rotation under the Crew-9 mission.
The Starliner and Crew-9 spacefarers are also awaiting the impending arrival of their Crew-10 replacements, who are due to launch on a new Dragon capsule in late March.
In the meantime, Williams and Wilmore are making the best of the extra time in the cosmos.
“You just need to learn how to adapt and obviously we’ve all done that," Williams said. "We’ve made a great crew up here."
'Miraculous' views of Earth
When astronauts don spacesuits and venture outside the space station, it's to spend hours performing station maintenance and other seemingly menial tasks. There are moments during these spacewalks, though, when the spacefarers can't help but take in an astonishing view that few have – or will ever – experience.
Hague certainly didn't pass up the opportunity to steal a few glances of Earth and its magnificent sunsets during a Jan. 16 spacewalk with Williams.
"The Earth is such a miraculous thing to look down on, and when you're in the spacesuit it's a little different than when you look out the windows inside the space station," Hague said. "Our field of view is so large, for a moment you can just feel like that suit melts away and it’s just you witnessing the marvel that is the Earth."
At the time of the interview with USA TODAY, Williams and Wilmore were preparing for another spacewalk that commenced Thursday morning. For about six-and-a-half hours, the Starliner astronauts removed radio communications hardware and swabbed the outpost's exterior to collect potential microbe samples for analysis.
Williams now holds the record for the woman with the most cumulative time spent on spacewalks, with 62 hours and 6 minutes. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson was the previous record-holder.
Conducting scientific research in space
Spacewalks don't occur every day, unlike the science experiments and research the astronauts conduct aboard the station. In its two decades in orbit, the space station has become a critical hub for scientific research aiding spaceflight – much of it to prepare humans for deep-space exploration
The research the four American astronauts are conducting could pave the way for NASAto send astronauts back to the moonin theyears aheadunder its Artemis campaign – its first lunar program since the Apollo missions came to an end in 1972. Musk's SpaceX has also been testing its gigantic Starship rocket, which the billionaire envisions as the vehicle that willtransport the first humans to Mars as early as 2028.
Recently, a SpaceX vehicle on a resupply mission transported a bevy of cargo to the station that included scientific research samples and hardware for Expedition 72 crew members. Much of it was meant to take advantage of the space station’s microgravity environment – research Don Pettit has played a large role in conducting.
Some of that research has been exploringhow microgravity and ultraviolet radiation affect plant growth, the findings of which could enable crews to grow crops on spacecraft during long-term missions further into the cosmos.
As Hague described to USA TODAY, if it's possible to grow microalgae in orbit, it could be a vital alternative to human-made machines to consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen for astronauts on future deep-space missions.
“As we try to go and explore deeper into space – go to the moon, go to Mars – those complicated machines are a failure point," Hague said.
Breaking down international borders on the ISS
For astronauts who shed their Earthly bounds, the borders that divide nations seem to vanish.
In the USA TODAY interview, the Americans on the the International Space Station described the bond they've built with their Russian companions at a time of tense relations between the two nations on Earth.
"It's fun to just trade stories around the dinner table and talk about culture and food,” Williams said. "The boundaries of countries sort of just melt away when you're around the dinner table and you're just talking about life and family."
The astronauts also described witnessing Earth from about 250 miles above as a profound experience – one that lends a new outlook on the commonalities all humans share.
"The perspective here allows you to see Earth as this precious whole thing that lacks a lot of boundaries,” Hague said. "We're all connected on the Earth and in large part we have more things in common than we have different."
Listen to the interview on USA TODAY's podcast and vodcast platforms beginning at 5 a.m. EST Sunday.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
