Two NASA astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, went to space for a short mission, but due to technical problems they had to stay in the ISS for more than 9 months. They returned to Earth on March 19. Meanwhile, their long space journey...

National Desk: Two NASA astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, went to space for a short mission, but due to technical problems they had to stay in the ISS for more than 9 months. He returned to Earth on March 19. Meanwhile, the salary they receive for their long space journey became a topic of discussion whether they would be given overtime for spending so many days in space. Regarding this, now US President Donald Trump has said that he will pay Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from his own pocket for spending extra time in space.

In fact, when Donald Trump was questioned about the overtime of these astronauts, he jokingly said, "If needed, I will pay them from my own pocket." Also, he thanked Elon Musk and SpaceX for playing an important role in this mission.

NASA astronauts do not get overtime

According to NASA rules, astronauts are government employees and they get salary for 40 hours of weekly duty. No additional payment is made for overtime, weekends, or holidays. Last year, the annual salary of NASA astronauts was more than $152,000. Apart from this, they are given an additional amount of $5 per day as "incidentals". According to this, for 286 days, each astronaut will get only $1,430 extra.

Role of SpaceX and safe return

NASA used SpaceX's Dragon Freedom capsule for the safe return of Sunita and Butch, which completed their journey from ISS to Earth in 17 hours. If SpaceX were not there, this mission could have been even more challenging for NASA.