In space, no one can hear your screams.
But there is always a psychiatrist on hand on Earth to listen to the stressed astronauts cry if necessary.
“I could snap at him, cry with him, whatever,” retired astronaut Clayton “AstroClay” Anderson said of the remote psychologist who helped him when he spent 152 days aboard the International Space Station in 2007. “He supported me. He could try to make changes (at NASA) and talk to my family when necessary.”
NASA’s earthbound psychiatrists may have their hands full right now, as astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore are “stuck” on the ISS due to spacecraft malfunctions.
On August 10, the two will be spending their 66th day on board the International Space Station – a mission that was originally supposed to last only 10 days.
NASA announced Wednesday that Wilmore and Williams may have to remain in place until February 2025.
Two more astronauts are scheduled to fly to the ISS in September on Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s CrewDragon. The four are scheduled to work together on the ISS until February and then fly home on the CrewDragon.
Remarkably, Anderson said, despite a two-year preparatory course before leaving for the International Space Station, there was no real training for what happens if you get stuck.
“I never thought about being stranded. I thought, ‘Hey, I have a job to do. I’m up here for a certain amount of time. That time is variable,'” the 65-year-old told The Post. “I don’t remember getting much training or psychology on how to deal with that.”
Astronauts are “trained to do a lot of repairs according to the instructions of the procedure,” Anderson said. It also helps if they are also reasonably good plumbers.
“There was a time when the Russian-made toilet broke on a Friday night and Russian mission control didn’t start up again until Saturday,” he recalled of the ISS. “So we had to survive the night without a toilet.”
In the meantime, he had to rely on a makeshift anti-gravity toilet called a Soyuz. “I also had Apollo poop bags” – literally bags that were supposed to be sealed and kept in a box – “but I had no training in how to use those bags. Yuck!”
As for repairs, Anderson said, “You get instructions the next morning to repair it and then hope the right parts are (on board). I think we fixed it in one day. But sometimes the parts have to be sent up.”
Remarkably, the transport time for deliveries can be as little as four hours.
There is no need to worry about going hungry, as cargo ships from the US bring fresh clothing and food to the ISS every few months. (Williams and Wilmore cannot, however, travel home on the transport ships, as they are not designed to transport people.)
But sometimes supplies are “bare except for the bare essentials,” Anderson said. “There were certain dishes on the space station that everyone hated. Tofu teriyaki and chili-flavored tofu were two I would never touch.”
The ISS was launched in 1998 as a collaboration between the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada and is now used by 15 countries for scientific research.
NASA describes it as “larger than a house with six bedrooms, six dormitories, two bathrooms, a gym and a 360-degree bay window.” It is powered by solar panels and the small galley kitchen has a refrigerator, running cold and hot water and a food warmer.
Although the medical supplies on board are more modern than your average first aid kit, they still sound more mundane than one might expect. Anderson recalled equipment for suturing and intubation, as well as an intravenous fluid set with syringes, in addition to Imodium AD and sleeping pills. In the event of an emergency, the astronauts would be guided through treatment by a doctor on the ground.
“I’m sure Suni and Butch have medical and psychological support up there,” said Anderson, who had access to both.
And sometimes astronauts are medical experts too. Frank Rubio was a flight surgeon when he was selected in 2017 to begin his two-year training for a stay on the ISS in 2022 with two Russian cosmonauts.
The mission was planned as a 180-day mission, but lasted only 371 days, setting the record for the longest spaceflight by an American. The reason for this was a radiator leak caused by a meteorite or space debris that struck the Russian spacecraft that was supposed to bring the astronauts home.
Rubio told NPR that he was going a little crazy because he was “in a very small space” where “the only privacy you have is about the size of a small phone booth.” In contrast to NASA, he described the ISS as a “two- to three-bedroom house that’s just hallways.”
Being stuck in space is physically demanding. Rubio told CNN: “We can’t walk and we don’t support our own weight (in space), so it’s going to be two to six months before I can essentially say I feel normal.”
NASA is careful to avoid the words “stuck,” “trapped” or “stranded.” During a June press conference about Wilmore and Williams, Steve Stich, head of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said, “Our plan is to then bring them back home on the Starliner and bring them home at the right time.”
The fact that Williams and Wilmore’s flawed return craft is being manufactured by Boeing – a company that has received plenty of bad press over the course of 2024 due to a long list of mechanical and human errors – “gives you pause,” Anderson said. “But the aircraft division is different from the space division.”
Steve Sitch, head of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said this week: “Over the last few weeks, we decided to make sure we have that option (the SpaceX option) there because there was, I would say, more and more unease in our community.”
Even before launch, it was known that the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that brought Williams and Wilmore to the ISS had a small helium leak.
According to CBS News, additional leaks in the spacecraft’s plumbing were discovered and repaired from the ground. But after the Starliner docked with the ISS, even more problems emerged, including faulty engines and helium leaks from the propulsion system.
Anderson, author of “The Ordinary Spaceman,” said the two probably weren’t afraid at the time.
“Butch and Suni were test pilots before they became astronauts,” he said. “This is just speculation, but I think part of them says, ‘We’re test pilots, we can do this, we’re not afraid.'”
Even without an unexpected delay, a prolonged stay in space can have devastating effects on relationships with spouses and children.
“My wife and I have talked about whether we could hold out if the mission was extended a month or so,” he said of his wife, Susan, who also worked for the space program. “But if it had taken three or four months, it would have been more difficult. I can’t speak to the situation of individual families, but I can imagine (Butch’s) family is starting to get a little nervous. His children are older … but they must miss having their father on Earth.”
Wilmore, 62, and his wife are from Middle Tennessee and have two daughters. A retired U.S. Navy captain, he was selected as an astronaut in 2000.
Williams, 58, is married and works as a federal police officer in Oregon. Before being selected as an astronaut in 1998, she was a test pilot in the Navy.
Anderson met Williams in 1998 when they were both training to be astronauts, and imagines her “enjoying every day in space. I can’t imagine her or Butch panicking right now. They’re probably just working hard, having fun and trusting the system. It’s kind of fun to be up there.”
Anderson, who is now CEO of the SAC Aerospace Museum in his hometown of Ashland, Nebraska, remembers how much he missed his family in space.
But, he admitted, that’s not the case for everyone. “We had astronauts who loved going to Star City (the Russian space training center northeast of Moscow) to train. That way they didn’t have to deal with family issues.”
