When Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore departed for the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft in early June, they expected to stay for a week. But two months later, a thruster malfunction has kept them on the ISS, and it’s still unclear when they’ll return.
There are very few people on Earth who can say they’ve ever had a space mission postponed, but former astronaut Mike Massimino is one of them.
“It was a great day for me,” Mike tells Helen Pidd. “There was nothing on the checklist to do, so I just looked out the window and relaxed.”
“Those were the best days of my mission and the best days of my life.”
The Guardian journalist Richard Luscombe also tells Helen what the delay means for Boeing, and what options the astronauts have for returning home.
Photo: Chris O’Meara/AP
