US President Joe Biden on Friday joked about going to space to “bring back” the stranded astronauts – referring to Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who have been at the International Space Station (ISS) since June due to a Starliner spacecraft malfunction.
Biden made the comments while discussing space exploration with Peru President Dina Boluarte Zegarra at a bilateral meeting.
Stating that the US and Peru are cooperating on space exploration, Biden laughingly said, “Now, that fellow right there…the former senator from Florida (pointing to NASA administrator Bill Nelson) – a very close friend of mine – every time my wife thinks I’m getting out of hand, she says that she is going to call him and have him send me to space.”
“And I’m a little concerned he may want to send me to space because we got to get some folks back home,” the 81-year-old President said as he laughed.
Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams and her NASA counterpart Barry Willmore have been at the ISS for nearly five months. They were launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5 for its first crewed flight and landed at the space station on June 6. It was supposed to be an eight-day mission but now has been stretched into months as they faced space debris threats, helium leaks, and technical glitches on the Starliner spacecraft.
According to NASA, it’s too risky to bring the duo back to Earth currently on the malfunctioned capsule.
They will now return home in February next year.
Amid this, reports of Williams’ health deteriorating have been doing rounds after images of her “gaunt” appearance in space went viral. However, earlier this week, she put the rumors to rest in a video interview shared by NASA.
Williams asserted that her weight is the same as when she arrived at the ISS.
“I think my body has changed a little bit but I weigh the same. There are a lot of changes that go on here…It’s funny, I think there are some rumours around that I am losing weight and stuff…No, I am actually right at the same amount. We go weigh ourselves, we have a spring mass…Butch and I weigh ourselves the same way that I was when I got up here,” she said.