Retired NASA astronaut reveals how much Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will be paid for their extended ISS stay
The circumstances of the stranded NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore gained significant interest from the public as their stay got extended for over nine months. Amidst all the concerns about their health and their return, the big question was about any remuneration they might be receiving for the overtime they did. Wilmore and Williams, who await their return to Earth on March 19, had been onboard the International Space Station since June last year. This exceeded the duration that was set for their initial week-long mission. Technical issues with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, which was to bring them home, caused the unexpected delay.
According to retired NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, the astronauts might not get special overtime payments beyond their standard salary. Considering that they are federal employees, their time in space is considered a regular work trip on Earth. This was an indictment of the unique nature of their profession. "There is some small amount of money every day for incidentals that they end up being legally obligated to pay you," Coleman stated in an interview with Washingtonian, but this only amounted to around $4 per day. An estimated calculation of salary for the stranded astronauts would be $1,004 each for their time in space thus far, per Unilad Tech.
It has also been insisted that the astronauts were not 'stranded' and they were making much of their time. "They're fine," astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell explained to Washingtonian. "They just got to do an extra spacewalk, which they love. They'll come home on the next ride," he added. However, the health conditions of the astronauts might be something to be concerned about as footage indicated that they looked thinner. It was also reported that they had to exercise every day for hours in an attempt to prevent serious health issues caused by chronic weightlessness. This extra time in space allowed astronauts to conduct some experiments.
The astronauts would call down to Earth for interviews and seemed in better conditions than assumed. We should also consider that they were well-trained, mission-oriented people who were not likely to show that they felt betrayed or stranded at all. It was noted by experts that their situation was not that uncommon. McDowell exclaimed that an extra month added onto a mission was normal and a few months was not unusual either. For example, in 2022, astronaut Frank Rubio went to the Space Station for a six-month mission but stayed for over a year due to damage in his spacecraft.
These astronauts were working 12 or more hours a day and were scheduled with several tasks onboard the spacecraft. They had to maintain the Space Station’s infrastructure, keep the computer systems up to date, conduct occasional spacewalks, exercise to preserve their muscle mass and practice for their voyages home. “The day-to-day expectations are not that exciting, except that you get to look out the window and see the Earth below,” McDowell, added as per the publication. Their extended stay highlighted the complexities that were part of crewed space missions.
Boeing's Starliner capsule, which was supposed to bring Williams and Butcher back to Earth, returned uncrewed because of technical issues. It also ran into difficulties when the two astronauts were onboard on their way to the ISS. In September of 2024, NASA decided to not put the lives of astronauts at risk and to bring back the capsule empty. NASA's rescue spacecraft Dragon carrying the Crew-10 mission arrived at the ISS after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:03 pm ET on Friday.
