Stranded Boeing Astronauts Stuck Cleaning Toilets And Rationing Clothes

When NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Boeing’s Starliner craft, they thought they’d spend eight days in orbit camping out and monitoring their craft before returning to Earth. However, issues with Starliner mean the pair has been stuck in space for more than 70 days and as a result they’re now running out of clothes and are being handed the jobs nobody else on the ISS wants to do.

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Wilmore and Williams launched into space on June 5 and docked with the ISS on June 6. Once docked with the station, issues were uncovered with the Starliner craft, which was designed and built by Boeing. Leaks on the craft’s thrusters mean NASA is concerned that launching could lead it to spiral out of control and hit the ISS, which isn’t something the agency is prepared to risk.

As such, the pair has now been stuck onboard the ISS for 71 days and they’re quickly running out of clothes and things to do, reports Futurism. During the pair’s initial eight-day mission, they were planning to monitor the Starliner’s condition and carry out a few other small jobs, however now that they’ve been stranded in space for almost 10-times longer than planned, they’ve been put to work by the rest of the crew:

As with every ISS mission, the Starliner astronauts initially had specific jobs to do on board the station that would have eaten up their eight-day journey. As Time reports, their main priority was checking in on the Boeing capsule and making sure its communications, life support, and other essential functions were in good shape.

With that checklist done and their journey having been extended until possibly February due to Starliner’s technical issues, Wilmore and Williams have instead been assisting their fellow crew members with their tasks and experiments, including repairing a urine processing pump.

When it comes to the duo’s clothing situation, there’s no laundry services on the ISS, as you might expect. This meant Wilmore and Williams were forced to ration their clean clothes. Thankfully, a resupply mission earlier this month gave them a few extra pairs of scrubs.

Room with a view. Photo: NASA Johnson

Then, there are the sleeping arrangements on the ISS, which are snug at best. Before launching into orbit, Wilmore and Williams admitted that things would be tight when they arrived on the ISS, reports Time. Now, it’s emerged that Wilmore has been left out in the cold, sleeping in a sleeping bag to himself in a spare module on the ISS as there aren’t enough beds to go around:

The space station is equipped with only six sleep chambers—phone booth-sized privacy pods with a sleeping bag and a storage area for snacks and personal supplies, along with two laptop computers bungeed to the walls. The enclosures aren’t sound-proof, but the astronauts can fall asleep wearing headphones playing music or sounds of Earth.

But the half a dozen enclosures mean three astronauts are left hanging. One of the astronauts who was already aboard the station, along with Williams, bunk down in a more spartan sleep chamber called a CASA (for Crew Alternate Sleep Accommodation) in the space station’s Columbus module, a laboratory built by the European Space Agency. Wilmore is camping out in a mere sleeping bag in the Japanese Space Agency’s Kibo module.

Everyone on board will no doubt be hoping for a swift solution to the troubles the two Boeing astronauts are facing. As it stands, NASA is currently delaying announcing its immediate plans for the pair amid fears over the safety of the Starliner craft. The agency’s backup plan would see them return to Earth next February as part of a SpaceX mission to the ISS.