Astronauts stranded in space talk about their situation and adaptations to life in orbit

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA. Butch Wilmore And Suni WilliamsAstronauts stranded in space will find it difficult to reenter the capsule, it said on Friday. Boeing left International Space Station The idea of ​​spending many more months in orbit without them.

These were their first public comments since the Boeing Starliner capsule that carried them to the International Space Station returned to Earth last week. The astronauts had to stay on the station after NASA determined that the capsule, which had various problems, posed too much of a risk to bring them back. Their eight-day mission is now slated to extend over eight months.

“It's complicated at times. It's been difficult since we got here,” Willmore said from 260 miles (420 kilometers) up. As space shuttle pilots, “you don't want (the ship) to take off without you, but that's what happened.”

As the first test pilots of the Starliner, although they never expected to stay there for nearly a year, they knew that problems could arise that would delay their return. “That's just the way it is in this world,” Williams said.

Wilmore and Williams became full-time members of the station's crew, assisting with its routine maintenance and testing. Wilmore told reporters that Williams will take command of the space station within a few weeks, his second since the June 5 launch from Florida.

The two, along with seven other astronauts, welcomed a Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American earlier this week, temporarily increasing the station's population to 12. Two more astronauts will fly aboard SpaceX At the end of this month; The two capsule seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams will remain empty on the return trip.

Because both had been there before, the transition to life on the station “wasn't that hard,” said Williams, who had been on the space station for two years before.

“This is my happy place. “I love being here in space,” he said.

Wilmore, though he didn't adapt immediately, he did so quickly.

The astronauts said they appreciate all the prayers and well-wishes they've received from people they don't know, and that it's helped them cope with everything they've missed in their lives at home.