NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally on their way home after spending significantly longer than intended on the International Space Station (ISS). They are returning following technical problems with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, which was intended to transport them home, requiring a prolonged nine-month stay in space.
NASA on Sunday informed that Williams and Wilmore are coming back Tuesday, March 18, evening (GMT). Their splashdown off the Florida coast is programmed for 5:57 local time (3:27 IST, March 19). As initially planned to come back not before Wednesday, the schedule got advanced.
NASA will be live streaming the event from Monday, March 17, at 10:45 PM EDT (March 18, 8:30 AM IST) with preparations for closing the Dragon spacecraft hatch.
The astronauts initially flew to the ISS last June as part of Boeing’s maiden crewed Starliner test flight. They were to be back within a week, but problems with the spacecraft’s propulsion made it unsuitable for their return trip. Their sojourn extended to nine months, well beyond their original timeline.
On Sunday, a SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle arrived at the ISS to take them home, with another American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut.
Will Sunita Williams Get Overtime Pay?
The longer duration of their mission prompts the question: Will Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore get overtime pay for staying longer?
Previous NASA astronaut Cady Coleman described that astronauts don’t get overtime compensation. “There is some little bit of money a day for incidentals that they actually become legally bound to pay you,” she said in an interview with Washingtonian.com.
“For me, it was about $4 a day,” she continued.
Estimated Compensation
For comparison, during her 159-day 2010-11 mission, Coleman earned approximately $636 (more than Rs. 55,000) in incidental pay. Using the same calculation, Williams and Wilmore—having spent more than 287 days in space are likely to earn around $1,148 (about Rs. 1 lakh) each in incidental pay.
But this figure may differ based on whether NASA has revised its daily allowance in recent years because of inflation or policy shifts.
Sunita Williams’ Salary Structure
It is reported that Williams and Wilmore fall in the GS-15 category, the top in the General Pay Schedule (GS) of U.S. government employees. Their basic pay varies from $125,133 to $162,672 (around Rs. 1.08 crore to Rs. 1.41 crore), according to their step within the grade.
Their prorated pay for nine-month extended tenure on the ISS is between $93,850 and $122,004 (about Rs. 81 lakh to Rs. 1.05 crore). Along with the assumed $1,148 incidental allowance, their collective income for the mission will range from $94,998 and $123,152 (about Rs. 82 lakh to Rs. 1.06 crore).
This estimate does not take into account any recent alterations NASA might have instituted to the incidental daily allowance, so the ultimate number is potentially slightly off.
