Sunita Williams Could Get This Much From NASA for a 9-Month Space Stay The highest pay grade for federal employees under the General Schedule (GS) system is GS-15, which Sunita Williams falls under.
New Delhi:Unexpected technical difficulties have left NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore trapped aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for more than nine months after they embarked on an eight-day mission. The money they are expected to receive for their extended stay in space has been a topic of discussion as they are ready to ultimately return to Earth onboard a SpaceX Dragon spaceship no early than March 19.
Astronauts’ Allotted Overtime Compensation
Cady Coleman, a retired NASA astronaut, claims that astronauts do not receive a specific overtime compensation. Their time in space is handled like any other business trip on Earth because they are federal workers. While NASA pays for their meals and living expenses on the ISS, they also receive their usual salary.
According to Ms. Coleman, who spoke to Washingtonian, the only extra money they get is a meager $4 (Rs 347) daily incidentals stipend.
For comparison, Ms. Coleman received around $636 (more than Rs 55,000) in additional salary during her 159-day trip in 2010–11. According to the same computation, Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore will probably only receive $1,148 (about Rs 1 lakh) in additional remuneration apiece despite spending more than 287 days in space.
Since they have been actively working on the ISS, NASA has insisted that the astronauts are not “stranded” in a technical sense.
The Potential Salary of Sunita Williams
Under the General Schedule (GS) system, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are categorized under the highest pay grade for federal employees, GS-15. The base pay for GS-15 government workers ranges from $125,133 to $162,672 (about Rs 1.08 crore to Rs 1.41 crore) every year.
Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore will receive a prorated pay of $93,850 to $122,004 (about Rs 81 lakh to Rs 1.05 crore) for their prolonged 9-month tenure on the ISS.
It is anticipated that they will receive between $94,998 and $123,152 (about Rs 82 lakh to Rs 1.06 crore) for the expedition, including the $1,148 (around Rs 1 lakh) in incidental pay.
Launch of the Return Mission
Due to technical issues with the spacecraft, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were on NASA’s Boeing Starliner test flight, experienced several delays in their return. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon spacecraft successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday at 7:03 p.m. ET (4:33 a.m. IST), and NASA just authorized a relief mission. Around ten in the morning, the Dragon docked with the ISS.
NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov are the four new crew members that NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission has sent to the ISS.
