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Speaker 1: You're listening to a Mamma Mia podcast. Mamma Mia acknowledges

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Speaker 1: the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast

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Speaker 1: is recorded on Hi. I'm Claire Murphy. This is Mamma

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Speaker 1: MIA's daily news podcast, The Quickie. The other day we

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Speaker 1: received an email from Halee McCurry asking us to delve

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Speaker 1: into a story that she's been seeing in her feed lately. Hey,

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Speaker 1: QUICKI team, if you get us for a moment, can

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Speaker 1: you please explain to us or what on earth is

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Speaker 1: going on up in space. I just can't understand how

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Speaker 1: those poor astronauts cannot get home until next year.

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Speaker 2: Thanks.

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Speaker 1: Yes, what was meant to be an eight day mission

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Speaker 1: has turned into a prolonged stay in space for NASA

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Speaker 1: astronauts Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore, which will now most

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Speaker 1: likely not see them return to Earth until next year.

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Speaker 1: Today we find out what went wrong and how you

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Speaker 1: can possibly stay in space for months when you only

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Speaker 1: planned a trip for just over a week. But before

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Speaker 1: we check in on the International Space Station, here's the

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Speaker 1: letters from the Quickie newsroom Wednesday, septemberfore Senator Linda Reynolds

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Speaker 1: lawyer has told the WA Court in closing arguments in

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Speaker 1: her defamation trial that Britney Higgins arrogantly tried to claim

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Speaker 1: she was the most hurt in the aftermath of the

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Speaker 1: Parliament House rape allegations and used her trauma as a

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Speaker 1: catch all excuse for a litany of lies. The final

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Speaker 1: submission saw Martin Bennett, Senator Reynolds lawyer, paint Miss Higgins

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Speaker 1: as a liar who tried to ruin her boss's career

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Speaker 1: and bring down the Morrison government. Mister Bennett saying Miss

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Speaker 1: Higgins arrogantly, from the sanctity of France, claims the status

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Speaker 1: of the person most seriously affected by this matter and

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Speaker 1: trivialized the hurt to others. Mister Bennett says that Senator Reynolds,

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Speaker 1: at great cost to herself personally, physically and mentally, in

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Speaker 1: an act of extraordinary moral courage, kept her promise to

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Speaker 1: never attack Miss Higgins for her obvious lies, with the

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Speaker 1: exception of when she called Miss Higgins a lying cow

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Speaker 1: in front of staff. In twenty twenty one, a Ugandan

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Speaker 1: Olympic athlete who's just competed in Paris is in hospital

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Speaker 1: after allegedly being attacked and set on fire by her boyfriend.

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Speaker 1: Thirty three year old Rebecca Zeptegi was heard arguing with

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Speaker 1: her boyfriend outside their home in Kenya on Sunday when

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Speaker 1: her boyfriend, who'd bought a jerry can of petrol, allegedly

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Speaker 1: poured it over her and set her alight, the flames

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Speaker 1: also jumping to the man. Both taken to hospital, suffering

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Speaker 1: serious injuries. In the wake of the news, Ugandan Olympic

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Speaker 1: Committee president Donald Rikhare called for an end to violence

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Speaker 1: against women, posting on social media, let's alsay not to violence,

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Speaker 1: especially against women. This is totally unacceptable and we condemn

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Speaker 1: this totally uncalled for attack. Together, Let's stand against violence.

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Speaker 1: As many as fifty one people have been killed in

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Speaker 1: a Russian air strike in central Ukraine. The missiles struck

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Speaker 1: a military institute in the town of Poltava, Ukraine President

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Speaker 1: Vlodimir Zelenski posting on telegram that the Russian scum will

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Speaker 1: definitely be held accountable for this strike before ordering a

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Speaker 1: full and prompt investigation. It's not yet clear who the

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Speaker 1: victims are, but the strike damaged the side of a

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Speaker 1: large building at the military institute, communications and educational facility,

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Speaker 1: as well as a hospital. Emergency crews have managed to

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Speaker 1: rescue twenty five people, eleven pulled from the rubble of

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Speaker 1: the ruined building. Fighting has intensified in the region in

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Speaker 1: the past month, with Russian forces advancing in eastern Ukraine,

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Speaker 1: while Ukrainian troops have mounted their first large scale cross

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Speaker 1: border assault into Russian territory. A source has told People

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Speaker 1: magazine that Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck's divorce could get ugly,

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Speaker 1: confirming the pair did not have a prenup in place

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Speaker 1: when they eloped to Vegas in twenty twenty two. The

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Speaker 1: now former couple are reportedly in mediation with high profile

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Speaker 1: US divorce lawyer Laura Wassa, the source saying they've hit

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Speaker 1: some snags when talking about financial matters. When Lopez filed

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Speaker 1: for divorce last month, she wrote that their assets were

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Speaker 1: unknown according to the law in California, where they both live,

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Speaker 1: only the income they created during their two years together

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Speaker 1: would be considered community property and therefore subject to division

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Speaker 1: in the separation. The Pulse on Paris not just a

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Speaker 1: gold medal, but a world record for James Turner on

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Speaker 1: the track in the men's four hundred meter T thirty

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Speaker 1: six in Paris. There's more hardware for our Paris swimmers too,

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Speaker 1: with Rachel Watson taking bronze in the women's one hundred

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Speaker 1: meter S three freestyle and eighteen year old West Australian

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Speaker 1: alex Safi scoring bronze in the men's one hundred meter

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Speaker 1: butterfly S ten ozsie table tennis Paris gold medalist in

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Speaker 1: the doubles, Jan Yang is now in a position to

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Speaker 1: defend her women's singles WS ten Paralympic title, beating Brazil's

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Speaker 1: Bruno Alexandra in the semifinal. Ozzie Stellar Barton has qualified

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Speaker 1: for the individual freestyle event to the Para Equestrian after

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Speaker 1: finishing eighth. And more heartbreak for Jared Clifford, who missed

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Speaker 1: out on bronze and the five k run after letting

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Speaker 1: go of the tether with his guide a fraction too early.

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Speaker 1: He is now missed out on another medal by one

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Speaker 1: one hundredth of a second in the fifteen hundred meter,

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Speaker 1: coming in fourth. That's the latest news headlines. Next, we

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Speaker 1: head into space to find out what happened to two

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Speaker 1: astronauts who went there for a week but who now

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Speaker 1: won't touch back down on Earth until twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Back On June fifth, two astronauts Sunnita Sonny Williams and

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Speaker 1: Barry Buch Wilmore launched Boeing's star Liner spacecraft from Cape

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Speaker 1: Canaveral for what was supposed to be a short test

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Speaker 1: flight to the International Space Station. However, nearly three months

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Speaker 1: later they remain in orbit, with a return date now

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Speaker 1: set for February twenty twenty five. This was the star

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Speaker 1: Liner's first crude mission. The flight aim to serve as

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Speaker 1: the final demonstration for Boeing to obtain routine flight certification

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Speaker 1: from NASA, who've been using SpaceX's services to ferry their

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Speaker 1: crew up to the ISS after the service went from

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Speaker 1: being exclusively NASA built rockets to private enterprise. But as

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Speaker 1: the spacecraft was docking with the ISS, engineers discovered issues

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Speaker 1: with Starliner's propulsion system, including thrust malfunction, and helium leaks,

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Speaker 1: some of which were known even before takeoff. The problem

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Speaker 1: has left NASA and Boeing scrambling to determine if the

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Speaker 1: spacecraft is safe enough to bring the pair home to work.

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Speaker 1: As engineering teams on the ground continue to run tests

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Speaker 1: and analyze data, Williams and Wilmore have found themselves in

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Speaker 1: an indefinite holding pattern two hundred and fifty miles above

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Speaker 1: the Earth's surface, but they don't seem too concerned about it.

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Speaker 1: The pair gave a press conference at the start of

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Speaker 1: August and said they were quickly adapting to life aboard

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Speaker 1: the ISS.

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Speaker 2: We've been integrated right into Expedition seventy one seventy one

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Speaker 2: plus as we call it, and we've been doing science

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Speaker 2: for them, some major maintenance that has been waiting for

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Speaker 2: a little while. There's the urine processor pump that we

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Speaker 2: took one good pump out and put into a good body.

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Speaker 2: It's called Franken pump. So we've been thoroughly busy up here,

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Speaker 2: integrated right into the crew, and about once a week

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Speaker 2: we get to jump into Starliner and talk to our

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Speaker 2: control team there and work through while the new nuances

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Speaker 2: that they're working very hard on the ground to make

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Speaker 2: sure that we'll be able to come home before too long.

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Speaker 1: NASA has had to do some juggling to try and

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Speaker 1: get Sunny and Butch home. A SpaceX mission set to

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Speaker 1: launch in September, which will return in February twenty twenty five,

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Speaker 1: originally had four crew members set to join the ISS,

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Speaker 1: but it will now only carry two, leaving two seats

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Speaker 1: free for the stranded astronauts. The Boeing star Liner will

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Speaker 1: return to Earth on its own. While SpaceX has been

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Speaker 1: flying astronauts to the ISS since twenty twenty, Boeing's efforts

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Speaker 1: have been plagued by delays and technical issues. The company

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Speaker 1: has already exceeded its Starliner program budget by over one

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Speaker 1: point five billion dollars, and the current situation threatens to

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Speaker 1: further damage its reputation in the aerospace sector. So while

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Speaker 1: the space people work out all the logistics, the reality

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Speaker 1: is that there's two extra bodies on board the International

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Speaker 1: Space Station who aren't meant to be there, So how

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Speaker 1: do they care for that? And what will they do

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Speaker 1: for the extra six months they'll be out there. Sarah

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Speaker 1: Webb is an astrophysicist and lecturer at Swinburne University. Sarah, so,

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Speaker 1: we're look in at this as outside as with little

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Speaker 1: knowledge of space travel, and think there could be nothing

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Speaker 1: more terrifying than your space rocket malfunctioning and then you're

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Speaker 1: getting stuck in space. But how often do things like

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Speaker 1: this happen in space travel and exploration. I'm imagining probably

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Speaker 1: more often than we know.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that is such a reasonable question. And I think

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Speaker 3: to us mere models here on the Earth, it sounds

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Speaker 3: absolutely terrifying going up to space and then hearing that

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Speaker 3: you're going to be stuck up there for quite a

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Speaker 3: few months. But look, space is really hard, and one

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Speaker 3: part of space is testing out new technology. So these

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Speaker 3: two particular astronauts who were quote unquote stranded up there

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Speaker 3: at the moment, they were testing the Boeing Starlineer capsule.

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Speaker 3: Now this is the first time I had ever been

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Speaker 3: crude so ever had people on board it heading to

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Speaker 3: the International Space Station, and it just meant inherently there

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Speaker 3: was always going to be risks and uncertainties around that mission.

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Speaker 3: And the two astronauts puts you into a absolute veterans

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Speaker 3: have had multiple space flights under them. It's only even

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Speaker 3: held a record at one point for the most spacewalks

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Speaker 3: by a female. Just incredible humans, And so they were

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Speaker 3: not knowing that there were always risks associated, and I

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Speaker 3: think it's unsurprising when we're using and testing new technology.

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Speaker 3: Something that I heard earlier this week that really I

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Speaker 3: think helps put it into perspective of everyday people like us,

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Speaker 3: is astronaut Chris Hadfield did an interview saying that they

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Speaker 3: train their entire lives to be an astronaut, to go

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Speaker 3: to space, and if they're lucky, they get to do

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Speaker 3: it one or two times in their life, maybe three

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Speaker 3: if they're very lucky. These two astronauts hadn't into space

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Speaker 3: for several years, and so they were only meant to

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Speaker 3: be up there for eight days. And he put it

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Speaker 3: in the perspective of this kind of glass half full

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Speaker 3: that for them it's likely a gift. Yes, they're not

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Speaker 3: coming back when they were expected to, but they're safe

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Speaker 3: and sound on the space station. They have everything they need,

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Speaker 3: and this might be their final chance to spend a

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Speaker 3: good amount of time in space, that job that they've

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Speaker 3: been training entire lives for. And I think after hearing that,

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Speaker 3: I really do understand how kind of exciting almost that

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Speaker 3: must be for them. You know, sure there's some uncertainties,

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Speaker 3: but they're not in a terrible place.

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Speaker 1: Okay, that does, I think put us at ease a

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Speaker 1: little bit, even though it does still sound terrifying. We'll

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Speaker 1: get to what's actually going to occupy their time while

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Speaker 1: they're up there in a minute, something that actually involves

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Speaker 1: you and your team. But first of all, the question

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Speaker 1: we get asked a lot is what contingency is in

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Speaker 1: place to spend time on the International Space Station when

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Speaker 1: you weren't meant to be there? Because I presume that

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Speaker 1: supplies are closely monitored and you can only store so

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Speaker 1: much at any one time, how do you support two

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Speaker 1: extra astronauts when they're not supposed to be there.

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Speaker 3: So the space station is an a wrackable place, but

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Speaker 3: obviously very limited on resources. They do have quite a

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Speaker 3: few prepackaged meals, so no one's ever going to grow

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Speaker 3: hungry in space because they're ensure that there is a

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Speaker 3: multitude of food always available. Same with water, so water

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Speaker 3: is not only sent up to the space station, but

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Speaker 3: it's actually recycled. And this can sound a little gross times,

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Speaker 3: but every bodily fluid that we can make as a human,

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Speaker 3: from sweat to urine up in space ends up getting

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Speaker 3: recycled back into drinkable water and probably water that's clean

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Speaker 3: out that comes out of my tap. So they've got

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Speaker 3: those basic building blocks for surviving and thriving food and water.

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Speaker 3: But as this is unexpected, they weren't meant to be

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Speaker 3: up there for so long. They did run short on

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Speaker 3: things like personal items and clothing, and so thankfully there's

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Speaker 3: multiple missions that go up with no crew on board,

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Speaker 3: but with lots of supplies, and they were able to

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Speaker 3: send some supplies up to these astronauts to make sure

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Speaker 3: that they had abundance of clothing and other items that

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Speaker 3: they might find more comfortable up there.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I was so concerned about food and water, I

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Speaker 1: didn't even think about clean underwear. But there you go.

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Speaker 1: While they're up there, of course, they're not just going

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Speaker 1: to want to float around aimlessly until their return date.

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Speaker 1: But I understand that they are going to be put

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Speaker 1: to work and will partially be working on a mission

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Speaker 1: that you and your team are involved in.

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Speaker 3: They are being put to work, that's exactly right. So

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Speaker 3: what NASA has to sign to do is only send

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Speaker 3: up two astronauts in September. They were scheduled to send

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Speaker 3: up four, but they're only going to send up two.

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Speaker 3: And the main reason for this is to put Buche

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Speaker 3: and Sunny to work to be able to fill in

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Speaker 3: for those additional two astronauts. They're leaving on Earth for

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Speaker 3: the next six months or so, and so they will

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Speaker 3: integrate into traditional crew life. They will then start taking

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Speaker 3: over the normal jobs they've already started to a certain degree,

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Speaker 3: but this will be a much more heavy workload of

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Speaker 3: being a crew astronaut, which means things like doing experiments,

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Speaker 3: maintaining the space station. And part of that is hopefully

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Speaker 3: our mushroom experiment, which is currently up on the International

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Speaker 3: Space Station, which was moved by the past crew into

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Speaker 3: its storage locker, will be returning likely towards the end

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Speaker 3: of September, and so astronauts up there will need to

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Speaker 3: move that into the capsule and make sure that that

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Speaker 3: is all safe and sound.

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Speaker 1: Can you just give us a little debrief on what

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Speaker 1: the mushroom experiment is.

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Speaker 3: So as for the last seven years, we've been working

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Speaker 3: with a school called Hailerburry College in Melbourne and we've

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Speaker 3: been working with our undergraduate and our postgraduate students to

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Speaker 3: design and send experiments to space. So this is our

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Speaker 3: sixth experiment that has gone to the space station and

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Speaker 3: we're trying to understand how mushrooms might grow in space. Obviously,

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Speaker 3: you don't have normal gravity that's acting on us here

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Speaker 3: on the Earth, and for biological systems this can kind

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Speaker 3: of be like a blessing. You often see things thrive

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Speaker 3: in space, and we really want to know if mushrooms

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Speaker 3: do that too. So right now we have three different

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Speaker 3: types of mushroom myciliums there, not the mushrooms that you

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Speaker 3: might know on your plate, but the my filum networks

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Speaker 3: that they grow from just growing in space. And when

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Speaker 3: they return back to Earth, we'll be able to work

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Speaker 3: not only with our university students, but with the high

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Speaker 3: school students to analyze those results.

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Speaker 1: I feel like mushrooms are already a bit alien, and

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Speaker 1: I feel like this is an ideal environment for them

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Speaker 1: to grow in.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely. I think if you asked a biologist, what

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Speaker 3: is the strangest bit of living life, mushrooms really fit

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Speaker 3: in well, because they're not quite an animal, they're not

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Speaker 3: quite a plant, they're incredibly intro and yeah, I'm so

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Speaker 3: glad we got to send some of them to space

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Speaker 3: to live their best interesting lives out there.

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Speaker 1: My next question is now, NASA has said that the

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Speaker 1: Boeing star Line, a capsule that took Butch and Sunni

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Speaker 1: up to the ISS, is going to return by itself

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Speaker 1: without a crew. How does that work?

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Speaker 3: So it is partly an autonomous vehicle. So this is

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Speaker 3: one of those type of capsules that you can send

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Speaker 3: it to and from without needing someone to drive it,

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Speaker 3: which is fantastic. So what they'll be able to do

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Speaker 3: is basically dislodge it from the space station, so it

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Speaker 3: will unconnect from the spacetition and then it will burn

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Speaker 3: some of it's remaining fuel to enter the atmosphere. Part

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Speaker 3: of it will burn up in the atmosphere as expected,

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Speaker 3: but the actual capsule which would have been holding the

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Speaker 3: astronauts will land back on the Earth. And now this

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Speaker 3: is going to be super important because it means that

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Speaker 3: Boeing and NASA can collect this and then continue to

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Speaker 3: run a plethora of tests to learn from whatever mistakes

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Speaker 3: have been had already and to better the next generation

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Speaker 3: of these capsules.

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Speaker 1: Will spending that extra time in space have a toll

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Speaker 1: on Butch and Sony's bodies. I mean, obviously you prepare

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Speaker 1: for eight days in space, but they're going to be

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Speaker 1: up there for substantially longer than that. Will that impact

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Speaker 1: them physically? Yeah?

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Speaker 3: It will. So space is an incredible environment, but it's

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Speaker 3: not one that is kind to our human body. So

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Speaker 3: we know that normally astronauts at least on the mass

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Speaker 3: of rotation tend to spend about six months in space,

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Speaker 3: and that's what we like to have because what happens

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Speaker 3: when you're up there for an extended period of time.

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Speaker 3: You get things like bone density loss or muscle loss.

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Speaker 3: Your heart actually shrinks because it's not pumping blood as hard.

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Speaker 3: You can get things that affect your eyesight, and just

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Speaker 3: a range of other problems from not being in gravity

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Speaker 3: that our body is used to. And all of these

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Speaker 3: problems tend to bounce back once you're on the Earth,

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Speaker 3: but the recovery is harder the longer you're in space. Certainly,

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Speaker 3: these two astronauts are going to have a lot more

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Speaker 3: effects on their body. But part of that is also

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Speaker 3: exciting because it's just another data point in science. It

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Speaker 3: means that once they return to Earth and we understand

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Speaker 3: what their bodies have done, we'll be able to then

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Speaker 3: analyze them and those data points to use.

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Speaker 1: Sarah. Just finally, I guess what many of us don't

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Speaker 1: understand is we presume that the US sends a rocket

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Speaker 1: with astronauts on it to the ISS you know, infrequently,

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Speaker 1: and then they have to rely on the US to

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Speaker 1: get them back again. But realistically, traffic to the ISS

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Speaker 1: is fairly busy when you consider space travel, right, because

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Speaker 1: you have other countries who are also sending like Russia

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Speaker 1: is sending cosmonauts up as well as astronauts from the US,

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Speaker 1: and you know, you have private companies now, so SpaceX

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Speaker 1: sends up shuttles as well as Boeing with their first one,

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Speaker 1: so it's actually quite regular trips back and forth between

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Speaker 1: the ISS and Earth.

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Speaker 3: It is fairly regular trips. You'll get at least multiple

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Speaker 3: launches a year with humans going up and back from

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Speaker 3: the space station, and you're absolutely rights. So there's multiple

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Speaker 3: different capsules. The US tend to rely on the SpaceX

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Speaker 3: Crew Tracking Capsule, which is of course that private company SpaceX,

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Speaker 3: but they essentially tender it out to NASA to use,

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Speaker 3: and astronauts from other nations, including places like Japan, will

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Speaker 3: catch rides on these caps so there is a plethora

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Speaker 3: of ways to kind of get to and from space.

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Speaker 3: The interesting thing though, is that the seating is so limited,

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Speaker 3: and the type of space suit you need to wear

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Speaker 3: in your capsule is also very different because each capsule

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Speaker 3: was designed at different times and has different requirements. So

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Speaker 3: that is probably one of the main things that we

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Speaker 3: don't tend to think about is sure, there might be

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Speaker 3: say five lifeboats in theory attached to a space station,

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Speaker 3: but you might only have a suit that fits two

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Speaker 3: of them. And while that can kind of sound scary,

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Speaker 3: this is why they take so much time to make

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Speaker 3: sure at any given point astronauts have an exit solution

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Speaker 3: to the ISS.

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Speaker 1: Now we finally just feel bad about the two astronauts

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Speaker 1: who got booted off that SpaceX capsule. In order for

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Speaker 1: Butcher and Sony to make their return journey, they must

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Speaker 1: be very upset.

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Speaker 3: I'm sure they're taking it on the chin. That's doing

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Speaker 3: it for the greater good of their fellow comrades. And

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Speaker 3: the amazing thing is that they will likely get to

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Speaker 3: go to space in the near future. And I really

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Speaker 3: do think astronauts are one of those really special type

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Speaker 3: of people. They're amazing. If you ever get to meet

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Speaker 3: nastronaut or hear a talk from one, you realize that,

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Speaker 3: at least me, as a mere model, I am built

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Speaker 3: very differently. My anxiety could never But these people are cool, calm,

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Speaker 3: collected and doing amazing things to better our understanding of

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Speaker 3: space and the human body.

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Speaker 1: So while most of us can think of nothing worse

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Speaker 1: than being stranded in space. It seems astronauts are fully

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Speaker 1: prepared for things to go wrong and have contingency plans

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Speaker 1: in place to deal with it. And with trips to

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Speaker 1: space being a very expensive and rare thing for those

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Speaker 1: who wish to do it, these two might just actually

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Speaker 1: be living their best lives right now.

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Speaker 2: We are having a great time here on ISS. You know,

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Speaker 2: Butcher and I have been up here before, and it

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Speaker 2: feels like coming back home. It feels good to float around,

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Speaker 2: it feels good to be in space and work up

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Speaker 2: here with the International Space Station team. So yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: great to be up here. So I'm not complaining Butcher's

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Speaker 2: and complaining that we're here for a couple extra weeks.

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Speaker 1: The Quikie is produced by me Claire Murphy and our

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Speaker 1: senior producer Taylor Strano, with audio production by Homeline