US President Joe Biden on Friday joked about going into space to “bring back” stranded astronauts – referring to Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who have been stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) since June due to a malfunction of the Starliner spacecraft. ) are in.
Biden made the comments while discussing space exploration with Peruvian President Dina Bolwart Zegarra in a bilateral meeting.
Noting that the US and Peru are collaborating on space exploration, Biden laughed and said, “Now, that guy right there…the former senator from Florida (pointing to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson) – a very close friend of mine.” Close friend – Every time my wife thinks I’m getting out of hand, she says she’ll call her and tell her to send me to space.”
“And I’m a little worried that they want to send me into space because we’ve got to get some people back home,” the 81-year-old president said, laughing.
Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams and her NASA counterpart Barry Wilmore have been in the ISS for almost five months. They were launched for the first crewed flight on June 5 aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and landed on the space station on June 6. It was supposed to be an eight-day mission, but has now been extended to months because they faced threats from space debris, helium. Leaks and technical glitches in the Starliner spacecraft.
According to NASA, it is too risky to return the two aboard the malfunctioning capsule to Earth.
They will now return home in February next year.
Meanwhile, Williams’ health is reported to be deteriorating after pictures of her “grim” appearance in space went viral. However, earlier this week, he put the rumors to rest in a video interview shared by NASA.
Williams claimed that his weight was the same as when he reached the ISS.
“I feel like my body has changed a little bit, but my weight is the same. There’s a lot of changes going on… It’s funny, I think there are some rumors going around that I’m losing weight and a lot Some… No, I’m actually right at the same amount. We weigh ourselves, we have a spring mass… Butch and I weigh ourselves the same way I did when I came here, “He said.
