WHAT ASTRONAUT SUNI WILLIAMS MISSED MOST ABOUT EARTH
Astronauts are highly trained professionals with arguably one of the coolest jobs out there. Ultimately, though, they are also people who experience homesickness, particularly if their journey home takes longer than anticipated. One of the astronauts who spent months stranded on the ISS and only returned this week, Suni Williams, talked candidly about the difficulties of being confined in space.
Williams spoke to kids at Needham High School, from which she graduated in 1983, from the ISS months before her return. According to the astronaut, the event has changed the way she views everyday physical objects on Earth. "I've spent enough time up here, and I've been attempting to recall what walking feels like right now. I haven't taken any walks. I haven't taken a seat yet. I haven't fallen asleep yet. You are not required to. You can simply close your eyes and float in this same spot. “There’s no resistance,” Williams continued. Without any training or effort, you can perform tasks that a gymnast can. It's enjoyable. You seem to be soaring over the lab.
The astronaut also talked about maintaining communication with her closest family members while in orbit. “My mother's getting a little bit older, so in that regard, I just try to stay in touch with them as much as possible. I think I talk to my mom practically every day. Just check in with her and call her and see how she's doing. So it's just a little bit of a different relationship than we had potentially planned on for the last couple of months. But we're managing,”
However, Williams has been appreciative of the experience since she doesn't take being an astronaut for granted. The astronaut stated she will miss "everything" about being in space at a press briefing just before her homecoming. "This is my third trip to the ISS with Butch [Wilmore]," she noted. "I don't want to lose that spark of inspiration, and I think that simply living up here in this really unusual area gives you a wonderful perspective—not just (with the view) out the window, obviously, but just on how to solve problems."
Earlier this month, Wilmore and Williams returned to Earth in the SpaceX Crew-9 capsule. On June 6, 2024, they landed on the ISS on an eight-day mission to test the capsule of Boeing Starliner. However, they were left stranded at the ISS due to technical difficulties with the vehicle. Despite this, both astronauts choose to focus on their production rather than admit they are "stuck." Williams performed numerous scientific experiments and spacewalks while she was in orbit. Upon her return to Earth, Williams became the American astronaut with the second-longest combined time in orbit with 608 days during three flights to the ISS, only behind Peggy Whitson.
