What do you pack for an eight-day round trip into space? A few changes of clothes, perhaps, and a book. A few of your favourite snacks. A travel-sized bottle of shampoo.

What if that eight-day trip turns into an eight-month ordeal in orbit? Astronaut Sunita Williams, who has been stuck aboard the International Space StationA joint project between the US, Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency. (ISS) for more than five months, might be wishing she packed a bigger suitcase.

Williams, who set off into the stars on 5 June, was part of the company Boeing's first attempt at a crewed flight into space after being awarded a multi-billion dollar contract by NasaThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration, responsible for the US space programme. to develop commercial space flights for astronauts.¹

But the Boeing Starliner that she was travelling on experienced multiple problems upon departure, including helium leaks and thrusterPart of a space rocket's propulsion system. breakdowns.

As it is not safe for her and her companion, Barry Wilmore, to return on the Starliner, she will have to wait until February 2025 to be picked up by a SpaceX Dragon ship and delivered safely back to Earth.

Life in the cosmos is far from a luxury. Williams and Wilmore have been living on freeze-dried pizza, shrimp cocktail, meat and breakfast cereals with powdered milk. Meanwhile, all the water onboard the ISS is recycled from their own sweat and urine.

The International Space Station hurtles at a constant 17,500 miles per hour, orbiting the planet every 93 minutes. Imagine the wonder: the space station sees one sunrise and one sunset every 90 minutes, or 16 times per day.²

To mark her heritage - Slovenian, Indian and American - Williams took three souvenirs to space: a Carniolan sausage, a Slovenian flag and a samosa.³

So far, Williams has celebrated her birthday, Thanksgiving and Diwali from space. She undoubtedly misses home: the variety of smells and foods, the feeling of being grounded, her dogs and her family.⁴

But, like other astronauts, she was chosen for the mission because of her positivity: her ability to stay calm and optimistic under pressure.

Is space exploration worth it?

Yes: Sunita Williams is the perfect evidence that space travel is worth it! She has given decades of her life to space travel and put her body through extreme conditions to further our research.

No: We have so many problems to fix on our own planet, which could easily become uninhabitable for us within a few decades. Investing billions of pounds in commercial space travel is not only unwise, it is offensive.

Or... A future in space is just not realistic. The resources it consumes are huge, and so far all we have to show for it is an international space station the size of a six-bedroom house. We should not entertain impossible hopes.