A former NASA employee has revealed how much the ‘stranded’ astronauts are being paid for their time in space.
Two NASA astronauts have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June 5, 2024.
Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams previously contacted Mission Control, notifying them of an issue.
In an audio exchange with staff at Mission Control at Johnson Space Center, Wilmore held up a phone to the speakers, initially producing an inaudible sound. However, a steady pulsating noise eventually emerged from Wilmore’s device.
“Butch, that one came through… It was kind of like a pulsating noise, almost like a sonar ping,” Mission Control responded after finally hearing the sound.
Wilmore then offered to play the sound again, saying, “I’ll do it one more time and let you all scratch your heads and see if you can figure out what’s going on.” He confirmed that the noise was coming from the Starliner speaker, though the source of the sound remained unidentified – until now.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, NASA Commercial Crew updated the public on the strange noise.
“The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner.
“The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback.”
They added: “The speaker feedback Wilmore reported has no technical impact to the crew, Starliner, or station operations, including Starliner’s uncrewed undocking from the station no earlier than Friday, Sept. 6.”
Wilmore, 61, and his fellow astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams, 58, set out on what was intended to be an eight-day mission to the ISS on June 5. However, thruster and leak issues with Boeing’s Starliner capsule after liftoff disrupted their planned return.
On August 8, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, Steve Stich, suggested that the astronauts might return on SpaceX Crew-9’s flight in February. “We have been working with SpaceX to ensure they are ready to respond with Crew-9 as a contingency. We have not formally committed to this path, but we wanted to ensure we had all that flexibility in place,” Stich explained.
“Our prime option is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner. However, we have done the requisite planning to make sure we have other options open.”
As per the Washingtonian magazine, the astronauts are paid the same way any employee is paid on a business trip, so essentially their normal annual salary. The company supplies food, drink transport and lodging. Of course there is nowhere for them to really spend money up there.
Former NASA employee Cady Coleman has revealed: “There is some small amount of money per day for incidentals that they end up being legally obligated to pay you.” She added that this works out around $4 per day, so just over $1000 for their time.
She added that being in space is like “…you’re a fish in an aquarium, where it’s sort of dark and you’re gliding through this wonderful place,”
The rescue mission was scheduled for last week but was pushed back due to hydraulic issues to March 14. The SpaceX Falcon 9 launched from Florida with four astronauts – hopefully, with no more issues, the two stranded will be able to return home.
