Astronauts who were stranded on the ISS for nine months wondered if theyd ever return to Earth

At the very start of what was supposed to be a weeklong space mission, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore had to wonder if they’d ever make it back to the Earth’s surface.As Williams and Wilmore approached the International Space Station last year, the thrusters on their Boeing Starliner capsule gave out, leaving the spacecraft unable to move forward.When they realized they might not be able to dock on the ISS, a frightening — and as it turned out, prophetic — thought entered their minds.“If we weren’t able to dock, would we be able to make it back [to Earth]?,” Wilmore told the BBC.

“We didn’t know.”Safely docking, Wilmore said, was imperative to their survival and eventual return to terra firma.The pair’s fears proved correct, as equipment failures resulted in Williams and Wilmore spending 285 days stranded in space.After the craft was docked, Wilmore and Williams both considered the possibility they might never see Earth again.“It definitely went through our minds,” Wilmore said.The astronauts dared not discuss the prospect, though.

Instead, their training kicked in.“You sort of read each other’s mind and know where we’re going with all the failures,” Williams told the outlet.“These were not expected.

At the same time, you know, we’re like, ‘What do we have? What can we do?'”Wilmore and Williams spent nine months on the ISS after the capsule failed, waiting for a flight home that would eventually come via SpaceX’s Dragon craft.Both returned to the Earth’s surface in March.They told the BBC they were never truly stranded on the ISS, as spacecraft attached to the space station could have been used to get them back in an emergency.“We knew nobody was going to just let us down,” Williams explained.“We knew everybody had our back and was looking out for us.”The two have been readjusting to gravity for the last two months.They have also been working with NASA and Boeing to address the issues that ca...