Caitlin Wilson
Lived editor

Nasa astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore could well have spent the better part of a year up in space by the time they are able to return to Earth - a trip which is forecasted for February 2025.

But the two have said that, despite missing their families - Wilmore said Friday he will now be physically absent for most of his daughter's final year of high school - they are actually grateful for the extra time on the International Space Station.

Williams has said that although she was disappointed to have to watch the Boeing Starliner craft they that travelled up on in June return to Earth without them earlier this month, she is glad for the chance to get to know a new spacecraft, the SpaceX Dragon that will bring them home next year.

And for Wilmore, he said he is happy to have a relief from joint pain while up in space - bones don't have any pressure pressing on them in zero-gravity.

The two also said they don't feel any ill will toward Nasa or Boeing as part of this ordeal - we're up here with friends, Williams, said, and we know we'll eventually have a ride home.

In the meantime, we are now ending our live coverage of this event. You can keep up with our coverage of this story below:

Boeing Starliner returns to EarthLink, but without astronauts

SpaceX will return stranded astronauts next year

Our writers on this page have been Sam Cabral, Ana Faguy, Nadine Yousif, Lana Lam and Georgina Rannard. I have enjoyed being the editor for this page and learning more about life on the International Space Station.

Thank you for joining us.

Georgina Rannard
Science reporter

Seeing the faces and hearing the voices of these two astronauts who've made headlines for weeks was quite a moment. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore looked happy and healthy, floating in one of the ISS modules, emphasising that they are trained for the unexpected.

And they are very professional - it would be a huge surprise if either astronaut said anything critical of their employer Nasa or its relationship with Boeing.

The closest they came was when Butch said there were things about the Boeing capsule they were not comfortable with. But he quickly added he thinks that could have been solved if they had enough time.

This was a great opportunity to hear from two people asked to do something remarkable, but it does not bring us closer to answers about what exactly went wrong with Boeing's spacecraft or whether Boeing and Nasa have a strong future together.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have wrapped up their call to Earth and one of their final answers was about conflict on Earth.

Williams says how being in space "just changes your perspective".

"It's very peaceful up here a lot of times," she says, adding while there's lots of work to do, there's time to be "a little introspective".

"It really is difficult for me to imagine people on Earth not getting along together," she says.

"It's the one planet we have and we should all really be happy that we're there together, cause that's it - that's our place."

Steven Dowling
Deputy Editor, BBC Future

Image source, Getty Images

Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams aren't the first to find themselves spending longer than planned in orbit.

Spare a thought for former Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who was stuck aboard the USSR's Mir space station in 1991 while the Soviet Union dissolved.

He ended up spending 311 days in space before returning to Earth. By the time he returned, the USSR had ceased to exist.

Read Richard Hollingham's story for BBC Future on the other timesastronauts got stuck in space.

Steven Dowling
Deputy Editor, BBC Future

The extended stay by Williams and Wilmore on the International Space Station has meant there are more people onboard consuming food and water than expected.

The extra bodies also produce more waste.

Normally the astronauts' sweat and urine is recycled into drinking water, but a recent fault has meant the crew have had to store urine instead – far from ideal onboard a cramped space station.

Fortunately among the things Williams and Wilmore carried with them to the ISS were replacement parts for its microgravity plumbing system. The two astronauts have consequently spent a fair bit of their time trying to fix the problem by carrying out regular bouts of "orbital plumbing".

One good thing about having extra pairs of highly trained hands onboard is that they can get more work done.

Read Richard Hollingham's story for BBC Future about what happenswhen astronauts get stuck in orbit.

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

It seems every day brings a fresh reminder of the crisis at Boeing - one of America’s biggest and best known companies.

Friday feels like a double whammy.

First, workers at its factories in Washington state went on strike for the first time in 16 years.

Now, the company had to watch as astronauts, which the company’s Starliner rocket was supposed to have safely ferried home weeks ago, hosted a call to discuss their stranding.

Boeing’s rocket did return to Earth without incident.

But that will be little consolation for the company, which has already reported losing more than $1.4bn on the contract.

The high-profile embarrassment was a reminder that the doubts the company is facing are spread across its business – not just in the commercial airplanes unit that drew so much attention this spring.

Martha Henriques
Editor, BBC Future Planet

The messages coming from Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams have been pretty cheerful considering their longer-than-expected stay on the International Space Station (ISS).

But even the most motivated astronauts can eventually face challenges on long missions.

In simulated space missions, some experience the "third quarter phenomenon": a dip in motivation that comes from realising there's as long left in their situation as they have already lived through. Isolated researchers in Antarctica also sometimes experience is "psychological hibernation", leaving people feeling flat and detached.

Research suggests there are ways astronauts and polar explorers alike can tackle these challenges – including prioritising good sleep.

Williams and Wilmore said during their news conference Friday that astronauts must be resilient to deal with all the unexpected twists and turns that come along with space travel.

Read Kelly Oakes' story for BBC Future on the psychologicalimpacts of long space missions.

Image source, NASA

Despite their unexpectedly lengthy stay aboard the International Space Station, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are not sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

During their news conference Friday, Wilmore and Williams said they are glad to be able to work on their experiments - sometimes upside down, as Williams pointed out.

Nasa said in a statement last month that the two “have been busy supporting station research, maintenance, and Starliner system testing and data analysis, among other activities”.

Williams herself has previously told reporters they’d been “thoroughly busy up here, integrated right into the crew”.

“There’s always work to do on the space station,” former astronaut Michael Fossum told the Texas Standard last week.

He said that the ISS has, for most of its lifetime, had ”a backlog of science experiments that we just didn’t have enough crews up there to take care of”.

Aboard the ISS with Wilmore and Williams at present are four other US astronauts, three Russian cosmonauts and three Chinese taikonauts.

Suni Williams reflected on the small differences between being on Earth versus being in space that most people might not think about.

She says when she first got to the International Space Station, she saw something fly by that she thought was a bug.

"Then I realised, 'Oh yeah, we're up in space, that's not gonna happen,'" Williams recalled.

"Your mindset sort of changes."

Georgina Rannard
Science reporter

Before they finished their news conference, Suni talked about their exercise routines - astronauts on a long stay on the ISS must do at least two hours a day in order to counter the loss of bone density that comes from being in zero gravity.

Butch gets up at 0430 and Suni gets up at 0630, she explained. "It's a good job we both like working out," she adds.

Life on the International Space Station (ISS) is quite regimental - the astronauts are given a daily schedule of tasks they have to complete - from science tests to technical work on the ISS maintenance.

Most astronauts get their own sleeping area with a sleeping bag and two laptops to keep in touch by email or calls with family at home. They also keep a few personal belongings in there.

Most of the food is re-constituted, but astronauts can ask for a few personal favourites from home.

The habitable area of the ISS is about the size of a six-bedroom house, so it's not too cramped.

And up there at 400km above our planet, many astronauts talk about the change in perspective they get from seeing the blue curve of Earth beneath them.

Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

So far, the astronauts seem to be enjoying life on the Space Station – which is where they will stay until February 2025 – when Boeing’s competitor SpaceX will send up one of their Dragon capsules to bring them home.

"This is my happy place," Williams says about her time in space, adding that it's fun to sometimes be able to do you work upside down.

"We're doing world-class science," she says.

And Wilmore says he is "grateful" for this experience.

Next the pair are asked how they feel physically after months in zero gravity.

Wilmore jokes that he's been told he has the "second best hair in the scene" as we can see it stand straight up in zero-gravity.

He says the transition to space has been "very easy".

"Your joints don't ache because there's no pressure on them," he says, which is "actually quite nice".

Image source, Nasa

The two astronauts say they were very proud to see the Starliner return to Earth safely, despite not being aboard it.

Williams says, "I was so happy it got home with no problems," adding that she and the crew on the International Space Station woke up early in the morning to watch it land.

Wilmore adds that Nasa's spaceflight programme is a "pretty tight-knit organisation", and that "it was wonderful" the Starliner had made it back.

"The fact that we weren't on it didn't even come to mind at all," he says.

Georgina Rannard
Science reporter

Butch now talks about their mindset as Nasa astronauts.

"It's not an easy business. We deal with all types of difficulties and all types of situations. It brings a great deal of fortitude," he says.

A number of journalists have asked how they feel about staying for 8 months instead of 8 days.

"From 8 days to 8 months, 9 months, or 10 months - we are going to do the very best job. You have to have that mindset".

Astronauts are pre-selected for a range of personal characteristics and then go through an incredibly tough training programme for months or years.

Just some of the characteristics astronauts should have are good judgement, motivation, teamwork and resourcefulness, according to Nasa.

The astronauts are asked a question about what Boeing could have done differently.

Wilmore says there's "not enough time" at the moment to answer that question without his words being "taken the wrong way".

"All that will play out in the coming months," he says, with "lessons learned" that we will go through.

"Things that need to change, will change," he says, adding that "Boeing's on board with that".

Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

These astronauts left Earth with engineers knowing there was a small helium leak in the Starliner's propulsion system – during the flight and docking four more helium leaks were identified – and some of the thrusters cut out.

They arrived safely at the ISS – greeted with the usual hugs – but engineers wanted to get to the bottom of the thruster problems before bringing them home. They never did – so here they have stayed ever since.

Williams says that she and Wilmore had been training for this mission for a number of years.

"Both of us had been up here before, so we have a little bit of experience," Williams says.

She notes that returning on a SpaceX craft rather than the Starliner was not their first choice, but says "you have to turn the page and look at the next opportunity, and do good for the agency and the country", adding she feels fortunate that she gets to experience both spacecrafts.

Wilmore adds that he feels a sense of "resiliency".

"We are tasked and we learn and we train to handle all types of different situations," he says, adding that it is not something he learned just with Nasa, but throughout his entire career.

"You have to go with what the good Lord gives you, whatever that is."

Image source, NASA