“They know that there can be unforeseen events, it’s part of their job,” explains a member of the Cité de l’espace in Toulouse.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were supposed to stay on board the ISS for eight days but will ultimately remain until February 2025. A situation that is entirely manageable for such experienced astronauts, according to Olivier Sanguy of the Cité de l’Espace in Toulouse.

“Both have already done six-month missions, they were even station commanders during their careers. They are not in the unknown.”explains Sunday August 25 on franceinfo Olivier Sanguy, editor-in-chief of space news at the Cité de l’espace in Toulouse, while two astronauts are stuck aboard the ISS. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams left with Boeing’s Starliner capsule. They were supposed to stay eight days aboard the ISS but will finally stay until February 2025 and return aboard a ship sent by Space X.

franceinfo: In the ISS, will we have to ration food?

Olivier Sanguy : No, we won’t have to ration because there are automatic cargo flights and NASA has already said that they will adjust what they send, especially concerning food, water and clothing to adapt to a crew of nine instead of seven. So it’s planned, there’s always some leftover. They know how to adapt, this is the third flight for these two astronauts. They know that when they leave, there can be unforeseen events. They are not at all in the unknown. It’s part of their job and NASA has repeated that morale is good.

Eight days is not eight months, are they prepared to last that long in space?

They will have to do sports. The muscles are not used up there. We lose muscle and bone mass. So they will do about two hours a day. Both have already done six-month missions, they were even commanders of the station during their careers. Eight-month missions in the ISS are not extraordinary. There have already been stays of a year. [Concernant l’oxygène]no problem there either. There are always more than enough on board the ISS. They are never at reserve level.

Apart from sports, what will they do with their days?

They are integrated into the work of Expedition 71 and soon Expedition 72. They have started to help their colleagues, they know the ISS perfectly for the maintenance of the station. They will also do experiments. It relieves their colleagues. Up there we always do about 200 scientific experiments permanently.

In terms of images, can we talk about a catastrophe?

There’s no denying that it’s catastrophic in terms of image. Now, NASA has said it wants a second ship. It has asked Boeing to fix what needs to be fixed, to understand the technical failure and to deliver a ship that works later. NASA wants two service providers. That way, when there’s a technical problem, there’s always a plan B. The Starliner, Boeing’s capsule, is designed to make these trips, these shuttles between Earth and the station and maybe even private trips later, which Space X already does. But until the capsule has been certified by NASA, Boeing will not see the commercial market open up to it.