NASA astronauts to speak about being 'stuck' in space for 9 months

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are speaking out for the first time on Monday after a nine-month stretch of being "stuck" on the International Space Station.

The pair has been back on Earth for nearly two weeks after flying home in a SpaceX Dragon capsule and splashing down on March 18. Williams and Wilmore will hold a joint news briefing on Monday at 2:30 p.m. ET from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to describe their experience.

The astronauts became famous for their longer-than-expected stay at the ISS.

The duo launched to the space station in June on the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule for a week-long mission. However, they encountered problems with the vehicle’s thrusters during the docking process, forcing them to remain in orbit for 286 days.

NASA ultimately decided to bring the Starliner spacecraft back to Earth without anyone on board in September, and agency officials shifted around plans to bring Wilmore and Williams back in a SpaceX capsule.

In a Monday interview with Fox News ahead of the news briefing, Wilmore said it’s not uncommon for astronauts to train for various contingencies, including being prepared for a mission to extend longer than anticipated.

“We prepped as if we were going to stay long, planning for the short mission,” he said.

Williams and Wilmore departed the space station on March 18 along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who were wrapping up a roughly six-month ISS mission.

Despite becoming known as the astronauts who were "stranded" in space, Williams and Wilmore have repeatedly said they enjoyed their extended time living and working at the orbiting outpost.

And when SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump made unsubstantiated claims that the Biden administration held up the flight back to Earth for political reasons, both astronauts carefully stayed out of the fray.

In a pre-departure news briefing from the space station earlier this month, Wilmore said they had “respect and admiration” for the president and “the utmost respect for Mr. Musk.”

In the Monday interview with Fox News, Wilmore said he wasn't looking to place blame on how the events unfolded.

"I don’t want to point fingers," he said. "I hope nobody wants to point fingers. We don’t want to look back and say, 'shame, shame, shame.' We want to look forward and say: Let’s rectify what we’ve learned, and let’s make the future even more productive and better. That’s that’s the way that I look at it — I think the way the nation should look at it."

Williams called the Starliner test flight a "dream assignment," adding that she was eager to fly a brand new spacecraft for the first time — especially given her background as a test pilot.

"This is really the cherry on top," she said.

Williams has said, however, that her longer-than-expected mission in space was likely much harder for her family and loved ones.

Shortly after his return, Wilmore’s daughter had shared on TikTok her excitement over finally being reunited with her father after nine months.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com