NASA’s record-holding astronaut is urging his two stuck-in-space colleagues to remain constructive and “sustain the nice work.”
Frank Rubio is aware of firsthand about unexpectedly lengthy spaceflights. His personal go to to the Worldwide House Station lasted simply over a 12 months, twice so long as deliberate.
So for the previous two weeks, he is been serving to out with his buddies’ prolonged keep. He stated he spoke with Suni Williams on Thursday and expressed satisfaction in how she and Butch Wilmore have coped with their scenario.
Williams and Wilmore ought to have returned to Earth on Boeing’s troubled Starliner capsule again in June, every week after blasting off on its first check flight with a crew. After in depth assessments and evaluation of thruster issues and helium leaks, NASA determined final weekend it will be safer for SpaceX to fly them residence, however that will not occur till February, greater than eight months after they blasted off.
“They’re doing nice work, actually sustaining a constructive perspective up there, setting a terrific instance and knocking out a complete lot of additional work on the house station,” Rubio informed The Related Press from NASA’s Johnson House Heart in Houston.
Whereas remaining in house till subsequent 12 months shouldn’t be “the optimum final result,” Rubio stated, “they’ve performed a unbelievable job of coping with adversity.” Their households, like his personal, even have needed to make sacrifices due to the change in plans.
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NASA astronauts Suni Williams, left, and Butch Wilmore stand collectively for a photograph enroute to the launch pad at House Launch Advanced 41 Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for his or her liftoff on the Boeing Starliner capsule to the worldwide house station. Credit score: AP Picture/Chris O’Meara, File
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On this picture offered by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Check astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait contained in the vestibule between the ahead port on the Worldwide House Station’s Concord module and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 13, 2024. Credit score: NASA through AP, File
“However that is a part of our job is simply to adapt and overcome and make the perfect of the scenario,” he stated, “and so they’ve performed simply that, so tremendous pleased with them.”
Williams and Wilmore have not spoken publicly in regards to the Starliner dilemma since their lone orbital information convention final month, properly earlier than the choice to bump them to SpaceX and convey Boeing’s capsule again empty in early September.
Rubio’s personal mission was prolonged after his Russian Soyuz capsule was hit by house junk and leaked all its coolant. A brand new Soyuz needed to be rushed up for him and his two Russian crewmates, and so they rode it again to Earth final September. Rubio holds the U.S. document for the longest single spaceflight along with his 371-day mission.
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NASA document holder can relate to astronauts caught in house. He was, too (2024, August 30)
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