Il Nuovo Postiglione - US astronauts upbeat seven months into eight-day mission

Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the ISS in June aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, and were due to spend only eight days on the orbiting laboratory.

But problems with the Starliner's propulsion system prompted NASA to change plans, with a return flight now scheduled for late March at the earliest.

Williams said spirits were still high despite the unexpectedly long stay in space.

"It's just been a joy to be working up here," he said during a call with NASA officials.

"It doesn't feel like we're cast away," he added. "Eventually we want to go home, because we left our families a little while ago but we have a lot to do while we're up here."

Wilmore chuckled while offering reassurance about food supply.

"We are well fed," he said.

Laundry requirements are also not comparable to Earth, he explained.

"Clothes fit loosely up here. It's not like on Earth where you sweat and it gets bad. I mean, they fit loosely. So you can wear things honestly, for weeks at a time, and it doesn't bother you at all," he said.

After the propulsion problems developed, NASA ultimately decided to return the spacecraft to Earth without its crew, and to bring the two stranded astronauts back home with the members of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission.

Crew-9's two astronauts arrived at the ISS aboard a Dragon spacecraft in late September, with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams. The plan was for all four to return home in February 2025.

But the return was postponed last month when NASA announced that Crew-10, which would relieve Crew-9 and the stranded pair, would now launch no earlier than March 2025, and both teams would remain on board for a "handover period."

According to those timelines, Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to spend more than nine months in space.

"When we get home, we'll have lots of stories to tell," Williams said.

Q.Bernardi--INP