Other astronauts who were trapped in space

Since space facilities like the now-defunct MIR or the current International Space Station have been operational, there have been tense situations that have led to unusual incidents that astronauts have suffered in orbit. Here are some missions that have been extended due to unexpected “setbacks.”

The last stranded

Less than a year ago, a similar situation occurred on the International Space Station to what happened to Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore. On December 14, 2022, as cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petilin prepared for a routine spacewalk 250 miles above our heads, a stunning white aircraft could be seen on the live feed emerging from Soyuz MS-22, the Russian spacecraft docked to the station where Prokopyev and Petilin had arrived from Kazakhstan with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio in September of that year. They were due to return there, but the incident complicated matters.

The snowflake-like substance was actually liquid from the probe’s cooling system, a vital component in maintaining the temperature in the capsule when the astronauts return home and must face re-entry into the atmosphere, where their craft endures temperatures exceeding 1,600 degrees.

From that moment on, a full-fledged space TV series was developed, featuring more leaked Russian ships, sending a replacement Soyuz and extending the planned six-month mission to a year. “It was hard to know that I was going to spend another six months in space, separated from my family. But I have colleagues in the military who have had much longer missions in much harsher conditions, so I can’t feel sorry for myself,” Rubio explained at a news conference a month after his return, which happened almost a year ago, in September 2023.

Cosmonauts who took off in the Soviet Union and landed in Russia

But if there was ever a cinematic story about people stranded in space, it is the story of cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Alexander Volkov. The former arrived at the defunct Soviet space station MIR in May 1991, and the latter, along with Kazakh Toktar Obakirov and Austrian Franz Vibock, arrived in October of the same year. In principle, both were supposed to return five months later. However, the fall of the Soviet Union put a stop to their plans and their future was literally floating in space.

The Austrians and Kazakhs managed to land a week after their arrival, but the Soviets were left waiting for orders. However, the situation was complicated: they had launched into a country that no longer existed and were not oblivious to the consequences of such a situation. “For us it was unexpected, we did not understand what was happening,” Krikalev himself recalled in the 1993 BBC documentary “The Last Soviet Citizen” (although the cosmonaut was never alone in MIR, he ended up becoming more famous for the space duo because he was responsible for communications with Earth). “With the little information they gave us, we tried to get the full picture.” Krikalev communicated with people in the West and with his wife, Elena Terekhina, who worked as an operator for the Soviet space program.

In fact, the astronaut could always return; however, that would mean leaving MIR abandoned. For him, this was a responsibility. For the newly formed Russian government, this was a low priority because they had other concerns. Moreover, on October 25, 1991, Kazakhstan declared its sovereignty, meaning that the space center from which Krikalev was to depart was no longer under Russian control.

On December 25, 1991, the Soviet Union completely collapsed. Exactly three months later, Krikalev and Volkov returned to Earth. “The return was very pleasant,” said the cosmonaut. “Despite the danger we had to endure, we freed ourselves from the psychological burden.”

Despite this long journey, this was not the last time Krikalev would travel to space: in 2000 he was part of the first crew to travel to the new International Space Station, an infrastructure that has since become a symbol of cooperation between countries.

Italy’s Cristoforetti takes record from Sonny Williams

Expedition 43 members Terry W. Virts (NASA), Anton Shkaplerov (Roscosmos), and Samantha Cristoforetti (ESA) were not “stranded” on the ISS: their return ship did not fail. In this case, it was collateral damage from an incident on another ship, the loss of the Russian Progress 59 cargo probe, that caused its stay to be extended by a month longer than expected, to nearly seven. “The re-entry date has been postponed by four weeks to allow Roscosmos to investigate the cause of the loss of the Progress 59 cargo drone ship in late April.”

Cristoforetti, who arrived with her crew in November 2014 and departed in June of the following year, happened to take the record for a female stay on the ISS from Suni Williams herself, surpassing 195 days in orbit.