How astronauts cope with a surprise months-long stay in space

Unexpected extensions on space voyages aren’t unprecedented, but they can take a toll

Author of the article:

Bloomberg News

Loren Grush

Published Sep 05, 2024  •  4 minute read

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft at Space Launch Complex 41. Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images Photo by Joe Raedle /Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty I

Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams were supposed to spend only eight days in space. Instead, the NASA astronauts will end up being on the International Space Station for about eight months. That means missed birthdays, wedding anniversaries, kids’ performances and even the US presidential election.

So far, they’re taking the news in stride. “We are having a great time here on ISS,” Williams said during an in-space press conference in July. “You know, Butch and I have been up here before, and it feels like coming back home. It feels good to float around.”

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Their families say they’re managing to cope, too — despite their loved ones missing out on major milestones. Wilmore, for example, will be up in space for his 30th wedding anniversary. “You just sort of have to roll with it and expect the unexpected,” the astronaut’s wife, Deanna, told WVLT. To make up for it, the astronaut has been FaceTiming his family.

Unexpected extensions on space voyages aren’t unprecedented. NASA keeps the International Space Station well stocked with food, supplies and equipment to make sure astronauts are safe, comfortable and well informed about life back on Earth. In fact, NASA even has protocol for allowing astronauts to vote from space — thanks to a bill passed by the Texas Legislature in 1997.

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It’s not too different from requesting an absentee ballot on Earth, except astronauts have to list their current address on the application as “International Space Station, Low Earth Orbit.” From there, they receive an encrypted PDF of a ballot on their personal laptop through a secure email process, according to NASA.

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Once they’ve selected their candidates, the data for the completed vote is then transmitted via satellite to a ground antenna. NASA transfers that encrypted data to Mission Control in Houston and then on to the county clerk’s office.

Still, long and unexpected trips take a toll.

“When you’re in space for almost a year, you’re in space for just about everything — every birthday, every Christmas, every holiday,” said Scott Kelly, a former NASA astronaut who spent nearly a year on the International Space Station from 2015 to 2016. “I think the only holiday I’ve never been in space for was St. Patrick’s Day.”

This undated handout picture from NASA released on July 2, 2024 shows Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Photo by HANDOUT /NASA/AFP via Getty Images

While astronauts go into orbit knowing they might not come down as soon as planned, they’re not always fully prepared for such long stays.

“I knew what I was getting into, and I prepared mentally for it. I looked at it as every day I was up there was a kind of a badge of honor the longer I stayed,” said Kelly. “When you’re not expecting it, there is a little bit of a different mindset.”

When Frank Rubio found out his six-month mission would be extended to a year due to a coolant leak in his spacecraft, he had mixed feelings.

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“It was probably the one that we least wanted — to be extended for a full 12 months — as a family. That was mostly because of the things that I knew I’d be missing from a family perspective,” said Rubio, who now holds the record for longest continuous spaceflight for an American astronaut. “But then there’s a part of you that says, ‘Hey, you know, this is going to be pretty great as far as experiencing space, right?’”

Adjusting to an extended stay in orbit is no different than preparing for living abroad for a year. Astronauts have to find people to look after their homes and pay their bills, which may not be an issue for Wilmore and Williams, but can be for others.

“Both of them, as far as I understand, are married, and I’m sure their spouse can take care of that. But what if you’re not? How do you take care of your house?” Kelly said. “Single astronauts tell the stories of going into space for six months and coming back and their house was not in the same condition that they left it.”

The space station’s inhabitants aren’t totally cut off from life on Earth. There is decent internet on board and a network of satellites allows for phone calls, albeit short ones, to Earth.

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In this photo released by Roscosmos State Corporation, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio sits in a chair shortly after the landing of the Russian Soyuz MS-23 space capsule about 150 km (90 miles) south-east of the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Sept. 27, 2023. Photo by Ivan Timoshenko /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

“Most phone calls can last anywhere from five to 20 minutes,” Rubio said. “Right as as you switch from one satellite to the next, the phone call will drop. So generally, you try to kind of fit the phone call in there.”

For Rubio, the biggest disappointment for him was missing the entirety of his son’s senior year while in orbit.

“That was especially poignant to us because I had missed his birth when I was deployed to Iraq,” Rubio said. “So, you know, as a father, I just felt a little bit more guilty about that. But the great thing is, he was actually pretty proud of it, and actually probably more resilient than I was, and that really helped me out, to stay positive about it.”

One other thing for the astronauts to prepare for, said Kelly: Coming home.

“Everything seems new,” Kelly said of being back on the planet after a year way. “I remember the first time I saw a dog after being in space for nearly a year. It was like meeting this alien being that I had never met before. It was kind of cool.”

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