'I wasn't worried': Neil deGrasse Tyson on Sunita Williams' extended stay

Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams were initially set for an eight-day mission, but due to a technical glitch, the Nasa astronauts stayed aboard the International Space Station for nearly nine months

“They are professional astronauts, they didn’t freak out,” said popular American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson on Thursday on National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore’s unexpected extended stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

 

In a conversation with NDTV, he said, “They are selected not just because they are physically fit but also because they are emotionally fit. And when you are emotionally fit, things like, ‘okay, instead of eight days it's nine months’... you don’t see them freaking out or reacting in some way that would jeopardise the safety of the crew. So that’s why I was never worried... even if everybody else was. At no time did I have sympathy for them. I don't think they needed sympathy, personally.”

 

Talking about Williams and Wilmore’s road to recovery, he said they would need some time to readjust to Earth's gravity. He asserted that on the ISS they have many ways to exercise and so it's not that their muscles will not be able to hold them up at all. “The difference is... when you spend this much time being weightless, your ability to orient for what is ‘up’ and ‘down’ is compromised because you never had to use these tools of the inner ear to establish ‘up’ and ‘down’ in space. Now I haven’t been in space... but I have spoken to astronauts, friends of mine, who have spent a lot of time there, and they say typically they will recover within a week,” he topld NDTV.

 

“But don’t hand them glass cutlery just yet. If you hand them a glass they just let go (because their muscles are weaker) So, make sure the first few beverages are in a plastic cup,” he said.

 

Originally planned as a routine eight-day mission, Williams and Wilmore’s journey was extended unexpectedly due to technical malfunctions that prevented their spacecraft from making a safe return. They safely returned to Earth on Wednesday in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule with a gentle, on-target splashdown off Florida’s Gulf Coast near Tallahassee at around 3.30 am (IST), 17 hours after undocking from the ISS. From there they were taken for medical evaluations and recovery.