They’re temporary extraterrestrials about to phone home.
The NASA astronauts already trapped in space for months are due to call Earth on Friday afternoon to discuss their ongoing plight that will last at least another five months.
Sunita “Suni” Williams and Butch Wilmore will make “an Earth to space call” at 2:15 p.m. for a press conference from the International Space Station, which has been their home since June when their doomed Boeing Starliner was unable to bring them home from a planned 8-day voyage.
The call comes exactly a week after the Starliner returned to Earth — without its crew — to make room on the space station for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which is now due to bring the two astronauts home in February.
The return flight took six hours, with the Starliner parachuting into the New Mexico desert.
Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5, arriving at the International Space Station a day later for what was supposed to be an 8-day voyage.
Instead, the astronauts found themselves stuck in space after numerous helium leaks — that were previously known about — caused thrusters to malfunction.
NASA later announced it would not be able to return the veteran astronauts home until February 2025.
The decision was the result of a “commitment to safety,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson explained.
Boeing’s first-ever astronaut launch ran into problems before it even brought anyone aboard– failing it’s first uncrewed test flight in 2019.
The 2022 do-over uncovered even more flaws, leading to expensive repairs.
The pair will be at the International Space Station for 8 months in total.
The spacecraft reportedly made strange alarming noises earlier this month, causing Wilmore to urgently report the issue to ground control.
As news of the strange sound began to spread across social media, NASA released a statement insisting there was nothing to worry about and blamed the audio configuration between the space station and the Starliner for the issue.
