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Two NASA astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station since June 2024 have said they “do not feel like castaways”.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams originally planned to go to space for just eight days but got stuck on the ISS when their Boeing Starliner spacecraft experienced a myriad of problems. By September, it had returned to Earth without them.

Speaking to NASA leaders in a live video event on Wednesday evening, the pair seemed in good spirits alongside two other astronauts.

Responding to a question referencing the Tom Hanks film Cast Away, in which the main character is stranded on a desert island, Ms Williams said she and Mr Wilmore did not feel abandoned.

“Eventually we wanna go home,” she added. “We left our families a little while ago.

“But we have a lot to do up here and we have to get that stuff done before we go.”

The astronauts also said they had not yet been able to see the wildfires spreading in California from the window of the space station due to the path of their orbit. But they would take pictures from the space station when they do pass over the US state to help those on the ground, they added.

This photo provided by NASA shows Boeing's Starliner spacecraft which launched astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station docked to the Harmony module's forward port on July 3, 2024, seen from a window on the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft docked to the adjacent port. (NASA via AP)
Image:
Starliner spacecraft docked at the International Space Station. Pic: NASA

Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams, both retired Navy captains, have had their trip home repeatedly delayed.

Last month, their scheduled February return was pushed back once more because of problems with the SpaceX rocket that was going to pick them up.

The astronauts are waiting for NASA’s next crew to arrive at the ISS so they can take their places on the rocket home, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

In August, Boeing insisted the astronauts are “not stuck” and Ms Williams called the space station her “happy place”.

Almost six months later, the pair have spent the US election, Thanksgiving and Christmas aboard the ISS.

They were both able to vote in the US election, however, and although Mr Wilmore is missing most of his daughter’s final year of high school, the astronauts seemed happy in Wednesday’s call back to Earth.

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They aren’t in danger; astronauts have spent far longer in space, with the record going to Russian Valeri Polyakov.

He spent 437 days off Earth in the mid-1990s.

In 2023, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio came back from a 371-day trip, breaking the record for the longest amount of time spent in space by an American.

The astronauts on the ISS also received two cargo deliveries recently, with clothes, food, water and oxygen, according to NASA.

“The resupply spacecraft also carried special items for the crew to celebrate the holidays aboard the orbital platform,” said the space agency in December.

Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams have become part of the regular ISS crew, taking on tasks like plumbing and repair of the space station.

Next week, Ms Williams is due to take part in a spacewalk with another crew member to replace a piece of kit on the outside of the space station that helps with orientation.

They’ll also fix a telescope and a reflector, as well as other items.

It’ll be Ms Williams’ eighth space walk during her long NASA career.



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