It sounds less than ideal — but as the report notes, Williams and Wilmore’s difficulties don’t end with their sleeping arrangements.
As with every ISS mission, the Starliner astronauts initially had specific jobs to do on board the station that would have eaten up their eight-day journey. As Time reports, their main priority was checking in on the Boeing capsule and making sure its communications, life support, and other essential functions were in good shape.
With that checklist done and their journey having been extended until possibly February due to Starliner’s technical issues, Wilmore and Williams have instead been assisting their fellow crew members with their tasks and experiments, including repairing a urine processing pump.
Beyond that lovely job, Wilmore and Williams were also forced to stretch their clothing rations because there’s no laundry on board the ISS. Generally speaking, astronauts pack enough clothes for the length of their journey, and with their trip home having been pushed back repeatedly, the Starliner crew had to make do until a Northrop Grumman resupply mission finally came to deliver them new clothes earlier this month.
Most of the regular crew gets a sleeping bag in a cupboard with some small locker space for personal effects.
Wilmore has just the bag, off in the Japanese module. And I guess he has to store personal effects in the Starliner. Though presumably he only packed for 8 days.
In climate controlled zero gravity, there’s no point to having more bedding than a light sleeping bag just to keep you from floating off somewhere. My guess is the big selling point on the cupboards is some noise damping, and maybe some protection from lighting. Spacecraft have noisy machines running all the time to keep you alive
I know they have earplugs and masks available, so it doesn’t really sound like this is a big deal. I think the article is just trying to farm views.
He gets a private suite?!
Are you expecting him to get an invoice for above standard accomodation? 😁