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‘Moon to Mars—That’s our outlook’: NASA astronaut Suni Williams on her hopes for the future
For NASA’s Sunita “Suni” Williams, a scheduled eight-day trip to the International Space Station last summer has instead become a nine-month work assignment.
Williams, 59, and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore initially remained at the ISS last June after the Boeing Starliner craft they were aboard malfunctioned. Officials ultimately decided to return the Starliner to Earth uncrewed last September, while William and Wilmore, now fully integrated into the crew of Expedition 72 at the ISS, stayed in space.
A veteran of two previous space missions, Williams has served as the station’s commander since September. She and Wilmore are scheduled to return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon as early as Tuesday, March 18, according to NASA. A replacement crew arrived at the space station over the weekend, following a scrubbed launch attempt by NASA and SpaceX last week due to a ground system issue at the launch pad.
By the time of their scheduled landing, Williams and Wilmore’s mission will clock in at nearly 290 days, one of the longer assignments in our history of space travel. Once on terra firma, though, Suni Williams likely will be thinking of space again. And she appears certain of the next move by the U.S. in that regard: a trip back to the future.
“The moon to Mars—that’s our outlook,” Williams says.
In an extensive interview with Fortune months before her mission began, Williams expanded on that idea—and the short- and longer-term outlook for space travel.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Fortune: First of all, why space, and why now?
Suni Williams: It’s just what the human body does—it explores, among other things. We all have curiosity; we’re born with it. Maybe some of that gets pushed down a little bit by society and things going on around us, but we’re all curious and we want to explore. As a nation, this is one of those things that gives people hope and understanding about things that are bigger than themselves.
What is out there that we still want to know about?
I think we want to know where our place in the universe is. When you’re here on Earth, you’re driving around thinking things like, “I’ve got to get to work. I’ve got to get in line at Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks.” We’re pretty myopically focused on the here and now. When you go out into space, and you actually see that this is just the little island that we all live on, it becomes more philosophical: What is our purpose here? What happened to our planet, and what is happening to our planet now?
That’s where Mars comes in to play?
If we went there, we might get some insights on what’s going to happen eventually here. How we keep our planet viable, and all of those other questions, may be answered when we just start to think and expand our horizon a little bit more by going to space.
And that starts with going back to the moon?
I don’t know how we’re going to go to Mars, and I don’t think anybody really knows exactly. But in the process of actually trying to get back to the moon sustainably and (then) onto Mars, I’d say we are going to learn something. We’re going to learn a lot about how to do things physically—engineering—but we’re also going to learn about us as human beings and how we tackle problems, and how we face problems in the future with other countries and cultures as we start to leave.
So what does that look like?
The moon to Mars—that’s our outlook. We want to go back to the moon sustainably, which means we need to have a lander presence there. We need to probably have a space station—we’re designing Gateway as a jumping-off point to get to the moon and off the moon, where we do science experiments, where we could build something on the moon sustainably. It seems a little bit like science fiction, a little bit crazy when we think about landers and spacecraft and all that stuff. But when I first got to the NASA building, the International Space Station seemed like it was crazy idea, too. We’ve done that. I don’t put anything past the human mind to be able to do.
When will we have a station on the moon, and then on Mars?
It’s not a quick thing. I think in this decade we will be having people on the moon, and I think the idea would be that as soon as we can get it going, we would want to start having some type of presence on the moon sustainably. As soon as we put people there, we’ll understand how hard it is to do it. Remember, we’re not going to the same place that we did for the Apollo program. It’s a little bit trickier. We’re at the pole, so it’s a different orbit. It’s a different environment.
That will get us ready. Some of the people who are building rockets that might go to some of these places, they are leaving them out in the environment, not necessarily a clean room, so that they can understand what a terrible environment would do to them. People are already thinking about leaving stuff on the moon for a little while and then trying to get it off of the moon. We’re already in the baby steps of understanding how this process is going to work.
Going to the moon would be a common occurrence?
Our idea is to be able to take people regularly to the moon and build our space station there. It’d be the practice ground for how we’re going to then understand how we could take people to Mars…We’ve gotten comfortable with going to low earth orbit (like the ISS). We know how to do it. It’s rockets. It’s dangerous, but we know how to do it. Let’s let companies be able to do that on a regular basis, and we can take the next step of exploration.
Speaking of companies, there’s been explosive growth in the private sector of space travel and production. Does that factor in to all this?
We got a taste of it here at NASA with space tourism, as the Russians were bringing some tourists up to the International Space Station. We embraced it and got on with it, and we started to understand that there’s an avenue here for commercialism. We were then contracting for commercial space supply, and then looking at commercial crew options for the International Space Station. So all of that sort of started to crack open around in the 2000’s, and it has really accelerated in the last decade.
Is there a benefit to the public?
Folks have recognized that this is an interesting way to get things to space, a little bit cheaper for the tax dollar, potentially. But the bigger and better thought is, let’s let these people design the spacecraft the way they want to. Let their creativity guide the way. They could do something and not perhaps be hindered by the way we’ve always done it, because times are changing. So there have been advances in manufacturing processes, 3D printing of metals on a large scale, friction stir welding, other types of processes like that.
And computing power as well?
It’s crazy how much computing power can be in a phone, for example—much more than the computers on the space shuttle. All these types of technological advancements, materials, chemicals, new ideas of using fuels for rocket engines—that’s all sort of been opened up as we’ve opened up to the commercial side. It’s like, let’s let people be creative and try to do this better and smarter. Of course, it’s expensive. The U.S. government has helped some of these companies along the way by rewarding contracts.
What are the main sectors where we might see future growth with regard to space exploration?
Rockets, of course. But also materials, suits, landers. If you’re going to put a human someplace, every aspect of that person going there for a long period of time needs to be adapted. So it’s food, it’s exercise, it’s clothing, some of these little basic things. We have to come up with creative ways to do all of that. Whenever I’m talking to any kids and they’re thinking about what they want to do as a career, I say, ‘You can do anything and be in the space business.’ You do not have to be an astronaut, an engineer or a doctor.
There is still so much we don’t know.
We’ve been able to come back (from space) and be okay. But you want to see how people are going to do when they live in space for a long period of time. The moon’s not that far, but that mission would be a couple of weeks long. They’ll be in microgravity the whole time. As we go further than that—going to Mars is going to be a long trip. Being on Mars is going to be a while, and it’s not going to be Earth gravity. So we have to learn. We have to figure it out.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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The NASA astronauts who have been stuck in space for 9 months are finally on their way home aboard a SpaceX capsule
NASA’s two stuck astronauts headed back to Earth with SpaceX on Tuesday to close out a dramatic marathon mission that began with a bungled Boeing test flight more than nine months ago.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams bid farewell to the International Space Station — their home since last spring — departing aboard a SpaceX capsule alongside two other astronauts. The capsule undocked shortly after 1 a.m. Eastern and aimed for a splashdown off the Florida coast around 6 p.m. Eastern, weather permitting.
The two expected to be gone just a week or so after launching on Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. So many problems cropped up on the way to the space station that NASA eventually sent Starliner back empty and transferred the test pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February. Then SpaceX capsule issues added another month’s delay.
Sunday’s arrival of their relief crew meant Wilmore and Williams could finally leave. NASA cut them loose a little early, given the iffy weather forecast later this week. They checked out with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov, who arrived in their own SpaceX capsule last fall with two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo.
“We’ll miss you, but have a great journey home,” NASA’s Anne McClain called out from the space station as the capsule pulled away 260 miles (418 kilometers) above the Pacific.
Their plight captured the world’s attention, giving new meaning to the phrase “stuck at work.” While other astronauts had logged longer spaceflights over the decades, none had to deal with so much uncertainty or see the length of their mission expand by so much.
Wilmore and Williams quickly transitioned from guests to full-fledged station crew members, conducting experiments, fixing equipment and even spacewalking together. With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, Williams set a record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts.
Both had lived on the orbiting lab before and knew the ropes, and brushed up on their station training before rocketing away. Williams became the station’s commander three months into their stay and held the post until earlier this month.
Their mission took an unexpected twist in late January when President Donald Trump asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to accelerate the astronauts’ return and blamed the delay on the Biden administration. The replacement crew’s brand new SpaceX capsule still wasn’t ready to fly, so SpaceX subbed it with a used one, hurrying things along by at least a few weeks.
Even in the middle of the political storm, Wilmore and Williams continued to maintain an even keel at public appearances from orbit, casting no blame and insisting they supported NASA’s decisions from the start.
NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing after the shuttle program ended, in order to have two competing U.S. companies for transporting astronauts to and from the space station until it’s abandoned in 2030 and steered to a fiery reentry. By then, it will have been up there more than three decades; the plan is to replace it with privately run stations so NASA can focus on moon and Mars expeditions.
Both retired Navy captains, Wilmore and Williams stressed they didn’t mind spending more time in space — a prolonged deployment reminiscent of their military days. But they acknowledged it was tough on their families.
Wilmore, 62, missed most of his younger daughter’s senior year of high school; his older daughter is in college. Williams, 59, had to settle for internet calls from space to her mother. They’ll have to wait until they’re off the SpaceX recovery ship and flown to Houston before the long-awaited reunion with their loved ones.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
Melinda French Gates says billionaires aren’t ‘a monolith,’ and not all of them need to be on stage touting their accomplishments
- Melinda French Gates emphasizes that billionaires shouldn’t be seen as a monolith and that not every business titan needs a massive audience to demonstrate the value of their work. She also prioritized giving her children a grounded upbringing by having them use her maiden name in school and ensuring they experienced a sense of normalcy despite their family’s immense wealth.
Melinda French Gate’s ex-husband might be one of the most famous entrepreneurs on the planet, but she doesn’t believe that being a billionaire automatically consigns an individual to a certain stereotype.
President Trump’s inauguration demonstrated that something of an alliance was forming between some of the world’s richest men.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) stood beside Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who himself was shoulder-to-shoulder with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Beside Bezos and his partner Lauren Sanchez was Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. Apple’s Tim Cook was also in attendance.
Notably missing from the line-up of Magnificent 7 bosses and founders was Gates, as well as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia founder Jensen Huang.
In the run-up to and days since Trump’s inauguration, some of the most powerful men on the planet have rallied around the White House. Others, like Gates, have met with the President but have also cautioned the Oval Office.
In a time of “masculine energy” at Meta and bromances between former Big Tech rivals, French Gates told Elle this week that billionaires shouldn’t be seen as a single entity.
When asked about the message being sent to the public by the coalition of tech titans, French Gates said: “I think it’s really important to not see billionaires as a monolith.
“And not all of them need to stand on a stage to talk about or to demonstrate what they’re doing.”
This might be news to the world’s richest man, Musk, who frequently found himself on stage during Trump’s presidential campaign.
More recently, Musk shared headline spots with Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who wielded a chainsaw on stage in Washington D.C.
French Gates drew criticism from Musk for her support of former President Biden, but isn’t alone in being the ex-wife of a billionaire denounced by the SpaceX founder.
Musk has also criticized the work of Mackenzie Scott, who was previously married to Bezos, calling aspects of her philanthropic work “concerning.”
French Gates’s philanthropic work focuses on supporting and empowering women and girls around the world, and added it’s important to have equality throughout every echelon of power.
She explained: “Men make certain decisions—not necessarily bad decisions, but decisions based on their lens on society, right?”
Growing up with the Gates name
With Bill Gates worth an estimated $162 billion and French Gates worth an estimated $30 billion, it might have been easy for their children to lose sight of what reality looks like for the general public.
To make sure their children didn’t fall foul of seeing their lives as part of a billionaires club, French Gates established some practices to give her offspring a more normal childhood.
This began in elementary school, with her three children using her maiden name ‘French’ as their surname.
By middle school, her kids were old enough to pick the moniker they went under. French Gates revealed her eldest daughter, Jennifer, chose to use her father’s surname in middle school, adding “she felt she was ready to take that name on.”
The couple’s son, Rory, stuck with the surname French throughout middle and high school.
French Gates explained: “I just tried to keep them in the real world and point things out to them as much as possible. We had real discussions about how our family was different, but you shouldn’t think any more of yourself because of that.”
This included keeping billionaire tech titan Gates out of the limelight at the start of the academic year.
French Gates encouraged her former husband to do the school drop-off, commencing from the third week of term, so her children had time to settle in before their billionaire philanthropist father appeared at the bus line.
“We got about two weeks where we were just ‘the Frenches.’ People saw that we were normal,” she explained.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Taking recruiter calls in the office parking lot on the down-low is no longer among the most lucrative things you can do at work. The median pay bump notched by those switching jobs shrunk to 4.8% last month from a peak of 7.7% in early 2023, according to recently released data from the Atlanta Fed.
That means the premium for ditching your current employer over staying put has all but disappeared since the red-hot job market of 2022 and 2023.
- In February 2023, a job-ditcher got a median 7.7% raise over the year, compared to a 5.6% pay bump for someone staying put.
- Last month, those who remained in their jobs received a 4.6% annual raise, just .2% under someone posting about “an exciting new chapter” on LinkedIn.
Help not so wanted
Job-hopping ceasing to be a surefire way to enter a new tax bracket is a sign of a cooling economy in which employers are no longer on the poaching prowl.
It’s been extra rough on tech: Memes about $800k tech salaries and in-office back rubs are rapidly becoming so 2022. After layoffs swept through the industry in 2024, and software development vacancies hit a 5-year low last month, many tech job seekers are settling for pay cuts, according to the Wall Street Journal.
- People applying for senior tech roles have been hit the hardest as many companies have slashed their manager headcount.
- Meanwhile, only 45% of tech workers got a raise last year, compared to 55% in 2023, according to the job board Dice.
But some job hoppers in other industries are still cashing in. The WSJ reports that experienced banking pros joining a new bank are getting record pay premiums, as the industry scored unprecedented earnings last year.
Big picture: Fewer people are taking the leap toward a new employer. Less than 2.2% of workers switched jobs last month compared to 2.6% in June 2022, per government data. —SK
This report was originally published by Morning Brew.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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