Amid the row over why Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are still ‘stuck’ in space nearly 300 days after they reached the International Space Station for a 10-day mission, Sunita Williams’s mother Bonnie Pandya said she does not think Suni or Butch feel they are stuck in space or there is any political reason for it.
Suni’s mother said she speaks to her daughter regularly and is not concerned as she knows what Suni does and she’s happy there. “She has been there before. I am kind of used to all this. I am not really worried about her. She knows what she’s doing and space is as safe as anywhere else,” Bonnie said in an interview with NewsNation.
“She said she could hardly wait to come home, to see me, to see her husband and children,” Bonnie said adding that Sunita wants to travel once she is back. “She’s doing great. They exercise for 2 to 2.5 hours every day. The other day, she spoke in a school in Florida.”
Reacting to Elon Musk’s statement that Joe Biden’s administration delayed bringing Suni back and his offer for help was earlier rejected, Suni’s mother said this should be politicized as this is science. “This is science, they are doing what they normally do they like doing this. I don’t think the two astronauts think this is politicized. It’s what they do, they like doing this and they are honored to go up on a long mission. They feel great about it.”
“They do not feel they are stuck. It was shocking to know that they are not coming down now but these things happen. It took three attempts to get off there. So it will take some time now. They are doing fine now,” Suni’s mother said.
Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen said Elon Musk’s claim of politicization is absolutely false. Elon Musk called him ‘idiot’ and ‘fully retarded’ and explained that SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago and he offered this directly to the Biden administration but they refused.
