Stranded astronaut Sunita Williams’ husband Michael says space is her ‘happy place’

Michael Williams, the husband of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, said his wife was not very disappointed about being stranded in space. “This is her happy place,” he said in an interview with Wall Street Journal.

Sunita Williams herself seemed to agree with her husband’s statement last month. “We’re having a great time here on the ISS,” she said during a press conference in July.

Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, who were originally scheduled to spend just over a week aboard the International Space Station as part of the Starliner’s first manned flight test, will likely have to extend their stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) by several months due to several problems with the spacecraft that occurred during the flight.

They could now spend eight months on the ISS and return in February. NASA will decide by mid-August whether Wilmore and Williams can return aboard the Starliner or whether they will have to wait to be retrieved by a SpaceX spacecraft.

“Butch and Suni are ready to do whatever we ask of them,” Steve Stich, a senior NASA official, said earlier this week.

Both astronauts previously worked as test pilots for the US Navy and have each flown to the ISS twice.

Wilmore, the mission commander, had spent 178 days in space before the Boeing mission, while Williams, the pilot, had even more experience, with 322 days.

A separate report from a local US news channel WVLT said that even Wilmore’s family is calm despite the problems with the Starliner spacecraft that require him to stay in space longer.

“You know, we probably don’t expect him until February, February or March,” Wilmore’s wife Deanna was quoted as saying by WVLT.

“It’s so cool, it gives us a lot of views of the Earth, I especially like watching the sunset,” said his daughter Daryn Wilmore.