Opinion Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore and the zero gravity life

First, a clarification: Unlike in Gravity, the 2013 film about two astronauts left adrift after space debris damages their shuttle, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are not stuck in space. NASA assures that the two astronauts who blasted off aboard the Boeing Starliner on June 5 for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission will simply return to Earth a little later than expected. This will likely be in February 2025 with a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft that is scheduled for a mission at the time.

In interviews from the International Space Station (ISS), both Williams and Wilmore have indicated that they are busy enough with tests and maintenance work that the next few months are likely to pass quickly. If there is an excruciatingly long wait, it is for those on Earth who are fantasising about regular commercial space flights for tourists taking off within the next decade or so. Long before Yuri Gagarin shot off into space aboard the Vostok 1 in 1961, dreams of exploring the vast blue beyond have haunted the human imagination. Yet, the persistent hitches that have delayed the return of Williams and Wilmore — glitchy thrusters and helium leaks — indicate that while space travel technology has made great strides since then, the average traveller’s dreams of spacewalking at teatime and catching sight of a sunrise every 90 minutes aboard the ISS are still a long way from coming true.

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Meanwhile, Williams and Wilmore will adjust to zero-gravity life, carrying out experiments — like how to care for plants in space — and participating in chores like cleaning toilets. Their journey to space and back, with all its problems and mundaneness, will become not a sensation-creating headline, but yet another chapter in the ultimate human endeavour. A small step, maybe, but also a big leap, as another famous astronaut once said.