From watching hurricane rip roof off home to swollen EYES – inside stranded ISS astronauts’ incredible 9 months in space
AFTER nine months left in space, astronauts Suni Williams and Barry Butch Willmore will return home today, splashing down in a SpaceX capsule off the Florida coast.
The two ex-Navy pilots should only have been above the Earth for eight days last June but they were forced to stay on the International Space Station for 283 days.
They came to be on the ISS – which is as big as Buckingham Palace while orbiting more than 300 miles in space – after a Boeing Starliner space craft they were testing developed a series of deadly faults.
The risk of the Starliner breaking up in 3,000-degree heat as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere made it too dangerous to return at the end of their week-long mission last summer.
Instead, they have endured more than 280 days on the ISS where both Federal Marshall’s wife Suni and dad-of-two Butch spent their birthdays in zero gravity.
As well as carrying out 900 hours of experiments and going on space walks, they spent much of their time staring out of the windows witnessing extraordinary events back on Earth.
They watched as the Los Angeles fires destroyed hundreds of homes in California and Butch, 62, looked on in horror as a hurricane hit Houston, Texas, his home city.
The storm even damaged the roof of his house and Butch had to sort out the insurance claim from in space.
Today the two astronauts are flying home in a four-seater SpaceX Dragon capsule designed by Elon Musk’s team of engineers.
But what has life looked like since they arrived at the 356-foot-long Space Station on June 6?
Recycled urine & Xmas in space
Butch has begun every day waking up at 4.30am – clocks onboard are set to Greenwich Mean Time – while Suni has awoken two hours later at 6.30am after nearly eight hours in a sleeping bag tethered to the wall of a sleeping pod.
Each compartment has a laptop so the crew can stay in touch with their families.
When she is not on the space station or training, Suni lives with her husband Michael and their two labrador dogs at their home in New England.
Once awake on the space station, she has usually spent two hours in the gym tethered to a running machine for much of the time before doing squats and weight training.
This was Suni’s third trip to the space station and she became the first woman ever to run a marathon in space.
The gym is next to the bathroom and during their nine-month stay on the International Space Station, Suni and Butch worked on repairing the loo.
Incredibly sweat and urine are recycled into drinking water onboard. But an unfortunate fault meant that all pee had to be stored until the system was fixed.
The space station is a home that has not had fresh air for more than 20 years, so it smells, and the pair will no doubt be looking forward to real food after nine months of ration packs.
Without gravity pulling sweat off the body, astronauts become covered in perspiration more than on Earth, but their clothes don’t get dirty because they float above the skin.
They can wear the same clothes for weeks on end, and any clothes that do get soiled are jettisoned into space.
On Christmas Day last year, the crew got some well-deserved time off to get in the festive spirit.
Nasa sent up presents from home, plus a festive dinner of smoked oysters, crab, duck foie gras, pâté, cranberry sauce, Atlantic lobster and smoked salmon.
And yes, there really was a small tinsel tree.
Ted Lasso tribute
The pair also got to take part in several space walks outside to carry out repairs, which means Suni set a new record for the most time walked in space by a woman – an incredible 62 hours and six minutes.
On the arm of her space suit, she had written the word ‘Believe’ – inspired by TV show Ted Lasso.
She says: “It was maybe good fortune that we got to do it. A couple of the spacewalks were some pretty critical things and we were able to get it done.
“It’s a surreal experience. The spacesuits are just amazing. I hug mine every time I come back in because it keeps us alive.
“I’m always a little bit nervous but there’s a task at hand that you’re going to get on it and get going. So, you just go out and do what you’ve trained to do.
“But then you look outside your visor and all of a sudden you see the Earth and you can’t forget where you are.
“’Believe’ is from the Ted Lasso show and you have just got to believe you can get this stuff done.
“It’s a risky business, right, we all know that. Spacecraft and spacesuits, it’s a matter of thousands of people getting it right over with a lot of equipment, a lot of engineering, a lot of creative ideas to get it done.
“I have faith in our team, and, you know, we are up here for a reason. We believe in what we’re doing. What we’re doing is good for humanity.”
Inside the space station, Butch and Suni helped the five other members of the crew complete an astonishing 900 hours of tasks on 150 experiments, including watering a garden.
Suni says: “We’re doing incredible science up here, and stem cell research, you know, bioprinting, 3D printing. It’s amazing.”
Clothes ‘become sandpaper’
Despite her punishing exercise regime, Suni’s muscles appear to be smaller than when she entered the station on June 6.
Living in space gives you swollen eyes as the liquid in your body goes to your head and some astronauts end up with permanent eye problems while others suffer terrible headaches.
Your skin becomes so soft in zero atmosphere that when you return to Earth clothes are like sandpaper. Your feet are so soft it is painful to walk.
Astronauts who have been in space for six months or more found their bones were 1.3 per cent weaker because of the weightlessness.
Returning astronauts also often come down to Earth with a bang and can suffer depression – a fact those taking care of the pair will no doubt be attuned to.
Experts predict it will take Butch and Suni nine months to fully recover – the amount of time they spent in space.
Tim Peake, the first British astronaut to serve on the International Space Station, said: “Final days are very busy. You’re trying to wrap up all your own personal administration and of course, you’re preparing the spacecraft for re-entry procedures as well.
“For Butch and Suni, I think it would be a very nostalgic moment. Suni has already said she doesn’t expect to go back to space again.
“The problem is that you’re having a great time. Your body feels great, it feels like a holiday.
“Your heart’s having an easy time, your muscles and bones are having an easy time, you’re floating around the space station in this wonderful zero-gravity environment.
“But you must keep up the exercise regime because you’re staying fit in space, not for space itself, but staying fit to return back to the punishing gravity environment of Earth.
“And those first two or three days back on Earth can be really punishing.”