They are temporary extraterrestrials trying to make a phone call home.
NASA astronauts, who have already been stuck in space for months, are scheduled to call Earth on Friday afternoon to discuss their predicament, which is likely to continue for at least another five months.
Sunita “Suni” Williams and Butch Wilmore will hold a press conference at 2:15 p.m. to make an “Earth-to-space phone call” from the International Space Station, where they have been based since June when their Boeing Starliner failed to return from its planned eight-day voyage.
The call came just one week after Starliner returned to Earth without a crew member, making room for SpaceX's Crew Dragon, which is scheduled to return two astronauts in February.
The return flight took six hours, with the Starliner parachuting into the New Mexico desert.
Williams and Wilmore were scheduled to launch aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 5 and arrive at the International Space Station the next day for an eight-day voyage.
However, numerous previously known helium leaks caused the thrusters to fail, trapping the astronauts in space.
NASA later announced that it wouldn't be able to return veteran astronauts until February 2025.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson explained the decision was the result of a “commitment to safety.”
Boeing's first-ever launch of astronauts ran into problems before anyone even got on board, and its first uncrewed test flight in 2019 failed.
A 2022 redo revealed even more defects, necessitating costly repairs.
The pair are expected to stay aboard the International Space Station for a total of eight months.
The spacecraft reportedly emitted a strange alarm earlier this month, and Wilmore urgently reported the issue to ground control.
As news of the strange sounds began to spread on social media, NASA released a statement claiming there was nothing to worry about and that the issue was due to an audio setup between the space station and Starliner.
