Featured Image Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The days are getting closer until SpaceX and NASA can finally bring the two stranded astronauts home safely.
In the meantime, you’ve got to wonder - are they at least getting a nice paycheck for being stuck in space all that time?
NASA astronauts Barry 'Butch' Wilmore and Sunita 'Suni' Williams have been on board the International Space Station (ISS) since last June on what was supposed to be a week-long mission.
However, their Boeing Starliner spacecraft suffered technical difficulties, leaving them stranded in space.
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The wait slowly turned into nine months and counting.
Just yesterday (12 March), the rescue mission was ready to go - SpaceX was set to launch Crew-10 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from Florida. But, less than an hour before liftoff, the mission was aborted, with Musk's space company reporting a hydraulic system issue in the launch tower.
This is yet another delay to the pair's rescue, following Crew-10, a joint Nasa-SpaceX mission that was scheduled on 12 February but postponed due to a problem with one of the rocket's clamp arms.
Crew-10 has been rescheduled for launch on 14 March. At least after all that, they can look forward to a hefty paycheque, right?
Well, according to retired NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, astronauts don't really get any special overtime beyond their standard salary.
Given that they are federal employees, their time in space is treated just like a regular work trip on Earth - which is underwhelming, to say the least.
"There is some small amount of money every say for incidentals that they end up being legally obligated to pay you," Coleman informed, but this is likely to be around just $4 per day, totalling $1,004 each for their time so far.
Furthermore, the space agency insists that the astronauts are not exactly 'stranded'.
Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said in an interview with Washingtonian that 'the party line at NASA is that the astronauts are not stranded,' and the situation has been 'way overblown.'
"They're fine," McDowell explained. "They just got to do an extra spacewalk, which they love. They'll come home on the next ride."
This doesn't really consider the possible health concerns that the pair may be enduring.
Photos have shown the astronauts looking visibly thinner, and reports indicate they have to exercise for hours every day to prevent serious health issues caused by chronic weightlessness.
Still, Williams has remained positive, reflecting on the unexpected extension of their mission.
"Of course, you know, we came up here thinking we'd be only here for a little while and do our test flight, but then the added time here has allowed us to do all the science experiments," she said.
"We've gone through a lot of holidays together. We've learned how to make cakes up here for each other. So it's been a lot of fun actually."
