Despite the headlines about being stranded in space, Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore are more than up to the task, according to former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who once spent almost a year on the International Space Station.
Williams, 58, and Wilmore, 61, have been in space since June 5, when they set off for what was supposed to be an eight-day trip to the International Space Station, but due to mechanical issueswith their Boeing Starliner shuttle, NASA recently announced that the earliest they’ll be able to go home is February 2025.
Kelly, 60, who knows both Williams and Wilmore, tells PEOPLE that although their flight back home has been drastically delayed, they would have known “that was a possibility going in.”
“I knew them before they were astronauts and we were all test pilots in the Navy,” he says. “They’ll be able to handle it.”
In fact, he believes that Williams — who has publicly said the pair are having a “great time” in space and she’s “not complaining”— is probably just excited for the opportunity to spend more time in orbit.
“She is a great spirit of a person and I’m sure she’s not minding being up there for more time,” Kelly adds. “She’s very enthusiastic about most things.”
Scott Kelly with view of the Bahamas from the International Space Station in 2015.
NASA/Getty
Kelly, who was in the astronaut class of 1996 and retired in 2016, spent 340 days aboard the International Space Station, a record that only two other NASA can say they’ve beaten.
With such a lengthy mission on his resume, Kelly knows exactly what it’s like to hang out in space. Claustrophobia isn’t much of a problem, he says.
“I describe it like a large four-bedroom house but filled with a lot of stuff,” Kelly says. “I always felt like I needed more space, not for me but an extra room for the storage situation.”
And, he notes, astronauts have their own “small coffin size room,” which he insists are “comfortable.”
“You have some personal stuff, you sleep there, you have some computers and things,” Kelly says, although he admits that while “the floating is fun” it does make “things more challenging and difficult to do.”
One of the hardest things about being on the space station? That you can’t just go outside.
“You don’t get the breeze on your face, the air is kind of stale inside and it can have a bit of odor depending on where you’re at,” Kelly says. “You don’t have the freedom you normally have. Your schedule is controlled by someone else.”
Work, however, makes the time go faster.
Still, Kelly admits that making the mental adjustment from a short-term trip to a long term voyage can take a little time to process.
Kelly says he once flew an almost six month flight on the space station and towards the end, felt like the “walls were closing in a bit.”
Yet, when he flew the flight for almost a year, he said he felt like he could have stayed longer. “I think it’s all about expectations,” Kelly says.
The NASA astronaut who holds the longest single flight, Frank Rubio, publicly expressed how difficult it was when his flight was delayed. He returned on Sept. 27, 2023 after spending 371 days aboard the ISS.
At the time, he told reporters he would have never signed up for a yearlong mission because of being away from his family for so long.
“He was only supposed to be there for four months and ended up there for over a year,” Kelly says. “I think when your plans change, it becomes more challenging.”
From left, Gabby Giffords with husband Mark Kelly, Scott Kelly’s twin brother and former astronaut.
Bryan Bedder/Getty
Kelly says his hardest day on the space station was in January 2011 during his first long-duration flight when CongresswomanGabby Giffords, the wife of his twin brother, American astronaut and senatorMark Kelly, was shot in an assassination attempt.
It was a helpless feeling when he could not return to Earth to be there with his family.
“That was a tough day,” Kelly says. “You want to be there for your kids, your spouse, my brother, particularly his kids. And you can’t. There is an understanding that what happens on Earth does not bring the astronaut home. “
However, he says the good days far outnumber the bad.
“It’s a challenging place to live, but it’s an extraordinary privilege to be able to fly in space,” Kelly says. “You deal with the challenges and bad stuff and appreciate the good that comes with it.”
