Rescued astronauts share first reactions to hearing they would stay in space longer than original timeline

US astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have revealed their first reactions after learning their week-long test flight was about to turn into a nine-month space odyssey.“My first thought was, we just got to pivot, right?,” Williams, 59, said in a sitdown interview with Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”“I was like, ‘OK, let’s make the best of it.’ We planned, we trained that we’d be there for some part of a time, so we were ready to just jump into it and take on the tasks that were given to us.”Wilmore, 62, who missed most of his daughter’s senior year of high school due to the ordeal, said he pushed his own feelings aside in order to focus “national goals.”“It’s not about me, it’s not about my feelings,” Wilmore said.“It’s about what this human space flight program is about.

It’s our national goals.“I have to wrap myself, my mind, around ‘what does hire nation need out of me right now?’ Did I think about not being there for my daughter’s high school year, of course, but de-compartmentalize.”The pair spoke out after making a dramatic return to Earth from the International Space Station back on March 18 after spending a total of 286 days in space — a staggering 278 days longer than anticipated.The NASA duo had set off on what was supposed to be an eight-day test flight on Boeing’s new Starliner spacecraft last June.Their unplanned jaunt quickly captured the world’s attention and gave new meaning to the phrase “stuck at work” — turning the pair into household names....