Astronaut stranded on the International Space Station returns to Earth, further expanding her wealth
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is in the news these days after Boeing’s first manned test of the Starliner spacecraft suffered propulsion problems and had to be ‘stranded’ on the International Space Station along with her colleague Butch Wilmore for nine months.
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Just last Tuesday, Sunita and Wilmore returned to Earth aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which splashed down off the coast of Florida, the culmination of a successful rescue mission known as Crew-9 commanded by Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Immediately, questions arose about how NASA would compensate Sunita and her mission partner for the ‘inconvenience’ of being stranded in space for so long, and therefore the question of how much does NASA pay astronauts?
The answer to this question is very simple: the salaries NASA pays astronauts are governed by the General Schedule (GS) classification system that applies to U.S. federal employees, although it depends on the rank and professional experience of each individual
According to public information from the US government, newly admitted astronauts to the space program earn between $66,000 and $100,000 per year, and those with more experience or who already have space travel experience can earn up to $144,000 per year, not including health insurance, paid vacations and pensions, or as in the case of Sunita Williams, compensation for eventualities such as the one she experienced and for which she would be credited with only $1,080 – according to 2011 figures whose update is not known.
Sunita Williams is a retired US Navy officer, born in Euclid, Ohio, to an Indian father and Slovenian mother. Until 2015, Sunita held the record as the longest-serving female astronaut in space on a single mission at 195 days, a feat now held by Samantha Cristoforetti
Sunita is in the GS-15 range, as she has experience and assigned missions. Senior GS-15 level astronauts earn – according to public information from NASA – $152,258 annually, in addition to comprehensive health insurance, housing allowance and preferential car loans. Sunita Williams resides in Houston, Texas, with her husband Michael J. Williams, a federal marshal, and has an estimated net worth of $5 million.
