Gregory Robinson
Sunita Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore have been living their day-to-day life in microgravity for the past nine months after they were left in space without any way to come home to Earth following issues with her spacecraft.
They were only supposed to spend eight days onboard the International Space Station (ISS) when they first began their mission on 5 June, 2024.
However, the Boeing capsule they travelled on faced numerous technical issues, making it unsafe for the pair to continue their journey home.
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The craft was then returned to Earth empty and it is understood that the pair won’t be able to return to Earth until March at the earliest on the SpaceX Crew-9 spacecraft, according to NASA.
President Donald Trump expressed his feelings regarding their situation, calling them 'the two brave astronauts' and asking Elon Musk and SpaceX to 'go get' them.
While they've been waiting, Williams and Wilmore have both spoke from the ISS, like revealing the daily exercise they must do in order to avoid suffering health issues, and now a former astronaut has shed further light on their situation as well as an idea of how much money they can expect to be paid.
In an interview with the Washingtonian, astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell outlines that ‘the party line at NASA is that the astronauts are not stranded,’ insisting ‘it's way overblown.’
"They're fine," McDowell explains. "They just got to do an extra spacewalk, which they love. They'll come home on the next ride."
What may come as a surprise to all of us on Earth is that the astronauts won’t get a huge amount in financial compensation for overtime pay.
Cady Coleman, a retired NASA astronaut, revealed in the same interview that the astronauts don't get any special overtime beyond their standard salaried pay packet, indicating that as federal employees, taking a trip to space has the same concessions as any other Earth-bound business trip.
"There is some small amount of money every say for incidentals that they end up being legally obligated to pay you," Coleman shared, revealing for her it was around $4 (£3.19) per day. This works out to be an extra $1,004 (£801.27) each for their time so far.
Describing what it's like being in space, Coleman added: "It’s almost like you’re a fish in an aquarium, where it’s sort of dark and you’re gliding through this wonderful place."
LADbible Group has contacted NASA for comment.