- Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams just completed a 286-day stay in space.
- The unexpectedly long mission moved them both up in the NASA record books.
- NASA astronauts are paid for a 40-hour week, even when they're in space.
Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are back on Earth after problems with their Boeing Starliner capsule led to an unexpectedly epic stay in space.
What began last June as a journey anticipated to last about a week or so instead stretched into a 286 day saga, most of it spent aboard the International Space Station, and one that has elevated Wilmore and Williams in the spacefaring record books.
While the longest ever continuous stay in space for the NASA program was logged by astronaut Frank Rubio, who spent over a year in the cosmos, Wilmore and Williams just vaulted to the No. 6 spot on the all-time list.
Rubio’s extended stay was, like Williams' and Wilmore’s, precipitated by technical issues, stretching his extraterrestrial adventure from a planned six months to just over a year, 371 days. In December 2022, the Russian Soyuz space capsule docked at the ISS that was Rubio’s ride home sprung a fluid leak. The issue led to a decision to fly a replacement, and unmanned, Soyuz craft to ISS to get Rubio and two Russian cosmonauts home, but the contingency added six months to the mission.
NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Scott Kelly round out the top three list, with stays of 355 days and 340 days, respectively.
While Rubio’s year-plus in space holds the NASA record for a single stay, the honor of most cumulative time goes to veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson who has logged 675 days away from Earth on numerous journeys. With the newly added 286-day mission complete, Williams now owns the No. 2 spot on the cumulative stay record list with 608 days.
Worldwide, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko has accumulated the most days in space at 1,111 over the course of five long-duration missions, while his countryman Valeri Polyakov has the longest continuous stay at 437 days.
How much did the astronauts get paid while in space?
Most civilians likely aren’t aware that NASA astronauts do not receive additional compensation for extended stays in space. In fact, most of their extraterrestrial time isn’t remunerated at all.
“[There’s] no hazard pay, there’s no overtime, there’s no comp time,” Mike Massimino, a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions, previously told MarketWatch, per a report from Fortune. “There’s no financial incentive to stay in space longer.”
A NASA spokesperson told Fortune that astronauts are paid a 40-hour-per-week salary, with no additional pay for holiday or weekends — despite the fact that they’re literally at work after work.
They added that the astronauts receive incidental amounts for each day they’re in space — but since they’re on long-term temporary duty, it’s only about $5 a day. That’s about $1,430 for the entire 286-day stay.
And, of course, travel expenses along with room and board are on the house.
“When NASA astronauts are aboard the International Space Station, they receive regular 40-hour workweek salaries,” NASA told Fortune in a statement. “While in space, NASA astronauts are on official travel orders as federal employees, so their transportation, lodging, and meals are provided.”
So how much are NASA astronauts currently earning? According to the U.S. space agency’s 2024 pay rates, they make an annual salary of $152,258.