CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Stuck-in-space astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said Friday it's been tough dealing with their Boeing ride leaving without them and the prospect of spending several extra months in orbit.
It was their first public comments since last week's return of the Boeing Starliner capsule that took them to the International Space Station in June. They remained behind after NASA determined the problem-plagued capsule posed too much risk for them to ride back in. Their eight-day mission is now expected to last more than eight months.
“It was trying at times. There were some tough times all the way through,” Wilmore said from 260 miles (420 kilometers) up. As spacecraft pilots, "you don't want to see it go off without you, but that's where we wound up.”
While they never expected to be up there nearly a year, as Starliner's first test pilots, they knew there could be problems that might delay their return. “That's how things go in this business,” Williams said.
Wilmore and Williams are now full-fledged station crew members, chipping in on routine maintenance and experiments. Williams will take over command of the space station in a few more weeks, Wilmore told reporters during a news conference — only their second since blasting off from Florida on June 5.
The duo, along with seven others on board, welcomed a Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American earlier this week, temporarily raising the station population to 12, a near record. And two more astronauts will fly up on SpaceX later this month; two capsule seats will be left empty for Wilmore and Williams for the return leg.
The transition to station life was “not that hard” since both had previous stints there, said Williams, who logged two long space station stays years ago.
“This is my happy place. I love being up here in space,” she said.
Wilmore noted that if his adjustment wasn't instantaneous, it was ”pretty close."
The astronauts said they appreciate all the prayers and well wishes from strangers back home, and that it's helped them cope with everything they'll miss out on back home.
Williams couldn't help but fret for a while over losing precious face-to-face time with her mother. Wilmore won't be around for his youngest daughter's final year of high school. He just requested an absentee ballot on Friday so he can vote in the November election from orbit. Both stressed the importance of carrying out their civic duties as their mission goes on.
Their Starliner capsule marked the first Boeing spaceflight with astronauts. It endured a series of thruster failures and helium leaks before arriving at the space station on June 6. It landed safely in the New Mexico desert earlier this month, but Boeing's path forward in NASA's commercial crew program remains uncertain.
The space agency hired SpaceX and Boeing as an orbital taxi service a decade ago after the shuttles retired. SpaceX has been flying astronauts since 2020.
Williams said she's excited to fly two different spacecraft on the same mission. "We’re testers, that’s what we do," she said.
“We wanted to take Starliner to the completion and land it back on land at home," she added. “But you have to turn the page and look at the next opportunity."
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
This image made from a NASA live stream shows NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore during a press conference from the International Space Station on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (NASA via AP)
This image made from a NASA live stream shows NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore during a press conference from the International Space Station on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (NASA via AP)
This image made from a NASA live stream shows NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore during a press conference from the International Space Station on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (NASA via AP)
Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday. In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters.
It’s been more than a year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 people captive inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.
In solidarity with Hamas, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has exchanged cross-border fire with Israel almost daily for the past year. Israel escalated its campaign against the group in recent weeks.
Rumors circulated for weeks over head of the expeditionary arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Gen. Esmail Qaani’s status after an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in late September. But Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, was seen in a black bomber jacket, wiping away tears at an event early Tuesday morning at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.
Here's the latest:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The funeral of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general killed alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah drew the largest crowd of top leaders in the paramilitary organization together Tuesday for the first time since Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel.
The Guard’s leadership hasn’t been as visible in the two weeks since Iran’s Oct. 1 attack on Israel. The Guard is the main power behind Iran’s theocracy and oversees its arsenal of ballistic missiles — which would be crucial in any future attack on Israel.
At the funeral in Tehran for Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, the Guard’s chief commander, Gen. Hossein Salami, attended alongside President Masoud Pezeshkian and the head of the country’s judiciary. Other Guard generals also attended, including Gen. Esmail Qaani of the Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force, about whom rumors had circulated for days regarding his status after the strike that killed Nasrallah.
At least two prominent Guard generals were not on hand: Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of Guard’s aerospace division that oversees its missile program, and Gen. Ali Reza Tangsiri, commander of the Guard’s navy, did not attend.
Iran offered no explanation for their absence, though Israel has threatened to carry out a serious retaliatory strike against Iran.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday.
A strike early Tuesday hit a house in the southern town of Beni Suhaila, killing at least 10 people from one extended family, according to Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis. The dead include three children and one woman, according to hospital records. An Associated Press camera operator at the hospital counted the bodies.
In the nearby town of Fakhari, a strike hit a house early Tuesday, killing five people, including three children and a woman, according to the European Hospital, where the casualties were taken.
The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes. It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of sheltering in civilian areas.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters Tuesday.
Adel al-Deqes said his relatives tried to move to another place in Jabaliya in the morning, but the military shelled them.
“We don’t know who died and who is still alive,” he said.
Ahmed Awda, another Jabaliya resident, said they heard “constant bombing and gunfire” overnight and Tuesday morning. He said the military destroyed many buildings in the eastern and northern parts of the camp, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.
“They bombed many buildings; some of them empty buildings,” he said.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The head of the expeditionary arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has appeared in television footage aired Tuesday by Iranian state television.
Rumors circulated for weeks over Gen. Esmail Qaani’s status in the time since an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in late September. But Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, was seen in a black bomber jacket, wiping away tears at an event early Tuesday morning at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.
While Iranian state television did not acknowledge the rumors, it made a point to film Qaani for over a minute and later share the footage from the airport ceremony online.
Qaani was on hand for the repatriation to Iran of the body of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, 58, who was killed in the airstrike.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Australia’s government has imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on five Iranians contributing to the country’s missile defense program, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Tuesday.
Iran’s launch of at least 180 ballistic missiles against Israel on Oct. 1 was “a dangerous escalation that increased the risk of a wider regional war,” Wong said in a statement.
The fresh sanctions target two directors and a senior official in Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization, the director of the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group, and the commercial director of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group.
The decision brings to 200 the number of Iran-linked individuals and entities now sanctioned by Australia.
“Australia will continue to hold Iran to account for its reckless and destabilizing actions,” Wong said.
People chant slogans during the funeral ceremony of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People and officials attend the funeral ceremony of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Commander of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, Gen. Esmail Qaani, mourns during the funeral ceremony of the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Mourners carry the coffin of Iranian Revolutionary Guards' deputy commander Brigadier Gen. Abbas Nilforushan who died alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last month during his funeral in Karbala, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Pro-Israel protesters holds Israeli flags as demonstrators protest Israel's war against Hamas outside the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A displaced family fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sits next to their tent on Beirut's corniche, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Families fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sit in front of the Mohammad al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Mourners carry a picture of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during the funeral procession of their relatives, in Maisara near the northern coastal town of Byblos, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Middle East latest: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill at least 15 people overnight
Middle East latest: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill at least 15 people overnight
