The astronauts (not) “stranded” on the Iss and space communication

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have returned to Earth after an extended stay on the Iss. They were never “castaways” in need of rescue, let alone abandoned by Nasa.

BY EMILIO COZZI AND MATTEO MARINI

“Stranded” in danger “castaways in need of rescue.” 

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been described this way as well. The two astronauts arrived at the International Space Station (Iss) in June 2024 and remained there until just a few days ago. They reached their destination aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule on a mission intended to certify the new US spacecraft as an additional transport option alongside SpaceX’s now well established Crew Dragon.

Even Elon Musk contributed to fueling the narrative of the “abandoned” astronauts. In his case one could reasonably assume it was a political move.

The truth is that Williams and Wilmore were never in more danger than any astronaut in orbit and their situation was never that of “prisoners” let alone “extraterrestrial castaways.” However rather than just being a sensationalized story to “sell more copies” or generate extra clicks for various media outlets the issue at hand is a cultural one one of space culture.

Nasa repeatedly insisted that the astronauts were not stranded on the ISS. It is true that the two both seasoned spaceflight veterans arrived after a problematic journey.

After several delays including an unsuccessful uncrewed test in 2019 followed by a successful one in 2022 the Starliner’s docking itself had caused significant challenges due to multiple maneuvering thruster failures. Once they safely arrived on board.

Thus Williams and Wilmore were reassigned. Their mission which was originally supposed to last just over a week was extended to nine months and 13 days. This is not unprecedented considering that Frank Rubio the astronaut who holds the record for the longest continuous space mission by an American set the record in 2022 with an impressive 370 days and 21 hours in what was originally planned as a six month stay.

It is important to emphasize this more than a year in space one of the most hostile environments for a human being a place where without a spacesuit death occurs in a matter of seconds where the absence of gravity has significant effects on the human body and where planning and executing missions safely involves complex logistical challenges.

In such an environment strict requirements must be met especially when human lives are at stake. No one can afford to take these operations lightly. That is why Williams and Wilmore were never truly “stranded” on the International Space Station particularly if by “stranded” one means completely unable to return to Earth meaning they had no chance of escaping in the event of an emergency evacuation.

A brief timeline the Starliner reached the Space Station on June 6 2024 opening a period of uncertainty as issues with its thrusters caused concerns for Ground Control. The decision was made to wait. The initial ten day review period turned into two months during which Nasa refused to approve the return using the same capsule despite Boeing assuring its reliability.

At that moment three options were available. The first was to place Williams and Wilmore on the Dragon already docked at the station and bring them home at the end of the previous mission. However this would extend the stay of two other astronauts already on the ISS to nearly a year.

The second option was to launch another Dragon to bring the two astronauts home immediately. But with another SpaceX capsule set to depart with four astronauts around the same time the ISS would be left understaffed with only three crew members aboard. In that case rushing to send a replacement crew would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and disrupt future crew rotations.

The final option was to launch the next SpaceX mission with two astronauts instead of four and extend the stay of Williams and Wilmore at least until February. After all eight or nine months in orbit posed no particular issues.

Nasa chose the third solution. It decided to return the Starliner empty and bring the two astronauts home with a Crew Dragon launched with a reduced crew. Starliner undocked from the ISS and reentered the atmosphere almost without problems on September 7. On September 28 a Falcon 9 carrying the Crew Dragon “Freedom” lifted off from Cape Canaveral. On board were only Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov. The two empty seats were reserved for Williams and Wilmore.

At this point a legitimate question arises. During those three weeks did Wilmore and Williams have access to a lifeboat a capsule that could bring them back to Earth in case of emergency? This is the only real criterion by which one could consider them “stranded” or even “abandoned.” The answer however is yes. There was room for them in a lifeboat even if it was not the most comfortable option.

A similar situation arose when Rubio’s mission had to be extended. The Soyuz spacecraft he arrived in had suffered damage to its cooling system. During his extended mission one of the Russian capsule’s seats was removed and placed in the Dragon (Crew 5) under its four seats where there was available space. Space.com reported this in August 2024. Rubio’s two crewmates would instead return with the Soyuz since a reduced crew would lower the risk of overheating.

That same cargo space could have accommodated Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore in the event of a forced evacuation. Nasa Iss program manager Dana Weigel explained this back in August of last year. It was a lesson learned from the Rubio case. “We realized that ideally we should not have removed the Soyuz seat lining and moved it. It is vulnerable to damage ” Weigel said. SpaceX’s new solution uses foam to cushion astronauts during reentry on the cargo pallet which “offers much more flexibility and does not put the Soyuz seat lining at risk.”

Though it was an improvised solution arranging “mattresses” to accommodate the two astronauts was the actual contingency plan. This was in fact the arrangement during the three-week wait for SpaceX’s “Freedom” which recently brought the supposed castaways back to Earth.

Yet the narrative that Williams and Wilmore were “stranded” never faded. Some even described Crew-10 which recently arrived at the ISS as a “rescue mission” despite the fact that a spacecraft capable of handling emergencies had been docked at the ISS for six months.

After the November elections that returned Trump to the White House and made Musk his “right-hand man ” the billionaire accused the Biden administration of deliberately abandoning the astronauts in space. He claimed to have offered Nasa an “express” return flight a Crew Dragon mission to bring Williams and Wilmore home immediately after the decision not to use Starliner. According to him NASA declined. However given the circumstances Nasa simply chose to save hundreds of millions of dollars a fact worth noting since it is public money.

Furthermore without speculating on their true feelings Williams and Wilmore never hid their enthusiasm for an extended stay and additional space assignments. The two veterans were well trained for such scenarios. Suni Williams holds the record for most extravehicular activities by a woman and is second only to Peggy Whitson in total time spent in space with 607 days.

For this reason calling them “stranded” was incorrect. It was either an error born from a lack of understanding of space operations or an underestimation of the professionalism and strict safety protocols of astronauts and space agencies.

Space history is full of wonder and unfortunately also of serious accidents. Adding an unnecessary “wow effect” was and is not needed.