There have been two NASA astronauts stranded in space on extended missions before.
The two astronauts from NASA who were left behind at the International Space Station after Boeing's problematic capsule returned are test pilots for the Navy who have already completed lengthy trips. Along with the seven other astronauts on board, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are now part of the station crew full-time.
NASA chose last month to extend their mission beyond eight months by waiting for a trip with SpaceX in late February instead of returning to Earth in their Boeing Starliner capsule. The test flight's initial schedule was for eight days of travel. The defunct Starliner capsule broke free from the space station on Friday and fell into the desert of New Mexico.
Growing up in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, Wilmore, now sixty-one, played football for both his high school and subsequently Tennessee Technological University teams. He enlisted in the Navy, trained as a test pilot, and completed 663 aircraft carrier landings in addition to more than 8,000 hours of flight time.
In 2000, NASA selected him as an astronaut after he had flown missions of combat throughout the first Gulf War in 1991 and was working as a flight test instructor. In 2009, Wilmore piloted the shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station, where he delivered numerous spare parts. After five years, he spent six months in orbit in the lab, including four spacewalks and launching on a Russian Soyuz from Kazakhstan.
Wilmore, who is married and has two daughters, is an elder in his Baptist church in the Houston region. While in orbit, he took part in prayer services alongside the community. The ambiguity and strain of his line of work are nothing new to his family. While serving in the Navy, he met his wife Deanna. Their daughters were born in Houston, the home base for astronauts.
Suni William
Williams,58, is the first female test pilot for a newly developed spaceship. She was raised in Needham, Massachusetts, the youngest of three children born to a Slovene American medical worker and an Indian-born brain researcher. She thought she would follow in their footsteps and pursue a career in science as a veterinarian. However, she wound up at the Naval Academy, desperate to get into the air, and flew overseas with a Navy helicopter squadron as they prepared for the Gulf War.
In 1998, NASA selected her for astronaut status. She leaped at the chance to travel to Russia and assist behind the scenes with the still-new spacecraft because of her own diversified experience. She took off on shuttle Discovery in 2006 for a long-duration mission.
She was forced to spend six and a half months longer than she had anticipated because her ride home, Atlantis, was damaged by hail at the Florida pad. In 2012, she went again to the space station, but this time she was the commander.
During her two trips, she completed seven spacewalks, ran the Boston Marathon on a station treadmill, and participated in a triathlon in which she used an exercise equipment in place of the swimming portion.
Back home in Houston, husband Michael Williams, a retired U.S. marshal and former Navy aviator, is taking care of their dogs. It's her mother, who is widowed, who worries. Before taking off, Williams remarked, "I think she's always worried because I'm her baby daughter." The Science and Educational Media Division of the Howard Hughes Medical Center provides support to the Associated Press Health and Science Department. All content is the exclusive responsibility of the AP.
.gif)