What about Sunita Williams’ overtime pay? How much will NASA pay for being stranded in space for 9 months?

Every mission to space has a different story. But the mission of Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore turned out to be much longer and challenging than expected. The journey which was supposed to be of just 8 days got stretched to more than 9 months due to technical difficulties. However, now NASA has finally cleared the way for their return. But there is a question that is coming in the minds of the people and that is whether Sunita will get extra salary or overtime for this (Sunita Williams Salary)? Let us understand this whole story in detail.

8-day mission became 9 months Sunita Williams

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore went to the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024 under a NASA mission. They reached there through a spacecraft named Boeing Starliner. Their mission was of just a few days. But due to sudden technical problems, they could not return on time.

Were they really ‘stuck’?

Media reports said that both the astronauts are stuck on the ISS. But NASA says something else. According to NASA, they were not “stuck” there but were carrying out their regular responsibilities. Both of them contributed to scientific research, maintenance of equipment and many important experiments of NASA there.

What about overtime pay? Sunita Williams Salary

The biggest question was whether Sunita and Butch will get overtime pay for working 9 months extra? This was answered by former NASA astronaut Katherine Grace (Cady) Coleman. She told that astronauts are not given extra pay or overtime. They are federal employees and their salary remains fixed.

Whether they work on Earth or in space. However, they definitely get a small stipend every day, which is called allowance in Hindi. Which is four dollars i.e. about 347 rupees per day. If we look at this allowance for 9 months or 287 days, then both of them will get a total of $ 1,148 i.e. about 1 lakh rupees extra (NASA to pay Sunita Williams).

What is the salary of NASA astronauts?

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore come in NASA’s GS-15 salary grade. Which is the highest level of federal employees. In this grade, an astronaut gets a salary of about Rs 1.08 crore to Rs 1.41 crore annually (Sunita Williams Salary).

Now it’s time to return!

Now that their mission has completed a much longer period than planned. So NASA has finally sent SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. Which is going to bring them back to Earth by March 19. This spacecraft will also have NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov who will return with them.