US astronauts Suni Williams and Barry Wilmore have been stranded in low earth orbit onboard the International Space Station for nine months. They are now finally due to return to Earth. Their planned return from their one week mission was abandoned due to concerns with the return vehicle, the Boeing Starliner-1, and this resulted in them being in space for 290 days.
Wilmore and Williams do not hold the record for the longest stay in orbit, which belongs to cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent 437 continuous days on the Soviet Mir space station. Nine other US astronauts have spent more than 200 days each in orbit during a single spaceflight – but Wilmore and Williams do hold the record for the longest unplanned spaceflight among US astronauts. Could the unplanned nature of their extended trip produce effects not seen in other planned long-term spaceflights?
The risks and hazards of space flight are well understood by Nasa and referred to as “RIDGE” – short for Radiation, Isolation and confinement, Distance from Earth, Gravity effects and hostile Environments. Aerospace medicine takes such issues seriously.
