NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who recently completed nine months at the International Space Station (ISS) with follow astronaut Butch Wilmore, recently reveled the hardest part of being stranded in space. For Williams, whose eight-day mission extended to over 270-day stay in space, the most challenging part wasn’t lack of gravity or the confined quarters, but the uncertainty over the timeline of her return–for her and her family waiting for her back home on Earth.

Addressing the press from the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, Williams said, “The hardest part is having the folks on the ground not know exactly when we’re coming back. It’s been a rollercoaster for them – probably more so than for us.”

Long-time NASA astronauts Wilmore and Williams embarked for the ISS on the Boeing Starliner on June 5, 2024, for an eight-day stay. However, their spacecraft suffered multiple technical issues en route to space. resulting in NASA declaring the Starliner too risky to carry astronauts back home. The spacecraft returned to Earth without its crew in September, leaving the two astronauts without a ride home. 

Now, the American space agency is planning to bring both its astronauts back to Earth on March 19 or 20, but they will make their return with the help of billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX, aboard its Crew-9 return flight.

The astronaut’s prolonged stay has also sparked controversy on the ground, with Musk claiming the astronauts were being left in space “for political reasons.” US President Donald Trump also echoed the sentiment, suggesting that the former Biden administration was deliberately delaying their return. 

However, both Williams and Wilmore gracefully sidestepped the political drama. When asked to comment on the matter, Williams on Thursday said, “We know what we’ve lived up here.”

 “We have the utmost respect for everyone trying to get us home,’ she added. 

Wilmore, meanwhile, said that he and Williams were left in the dark with “no information whatsoever” on what the Biden administration was doing to bring them back and therefore he believes Musk’s claim 

“That’s information that we simply don’t have, so I believe him,” Wilmore said.