Rhiannon Ingle
It's been nearly two weeks now since the pair of 'stranded' NASA astronauts returned to Earth earlier this month (18 March).
The likes of Sunita 'Suni' Williams and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore docked their Boeing Starliner onto the International Space Station (ISS) last summer on 5 June, 2024 for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission, unaware that they'd be trapped in the ship for a further nine months following a bout of technical faults.
Unfortunately for the pair, they ended up spending a staggering 286 days in space - which is a pretty monumental 278 days longer than anticipated - with Williams now making a surprise admission as she's now spoken out for the first time since returning to Mother Earth after all this time.
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"My first thought was, we just got to pivot, right?," Williams, 59 said in an interview on Fox News' America’s Newsroom when discussing her first reactions to hearing they would stay in space longer than the original timeline.
"I was like, 'OK, let’s make the best of it', We planned, we trained that we’d be there for some part of a time, so we were ready to just jump into it and take on the tasks that were given to us."
She continued: "If our spacecraft was going to go home based on decisions made here, and we were going to be up there 'til February, I was like, 'Let's make the best of it'."
Admitting she was even a little 'excited' about the prospect of spending months upon months in orbit, the NASA astronaut shared her love for living in space after being able to witness 'scientific experiments' unfolding around them and seeing the changes made to the ISS since her last visit.
"I'm honoured to be a little part of it," she added.
In the same interview, Wilmore, 62, also shared his initial reactions to the news that he'd be in space a lot longer than was initially planned.
He revealed that he pushed his own feelings aside in order to focus on 'national goals'.
"It’s not about me, it’s not about my feelings," he said. "It’s about what this human space flight program is about. It’s our national goals.
"I have to wrap myself, my mind, around 'what does the nation need out of me right now?' Did I think about not being there for my daughter’s high school year, of course… certainly, deal with the personal side of it, but I can’t let that interfere with what I’m called to do."