Astronaut Suni Williams is currently at the International Space Station (ISS) with her colleague Barry Wilmore since June. The plan was for them to be there for a week to 10 days, but various technical issues during the outbound journey have forced them to stay there for several months.
Last week, Suni Williams had a video call with students from Needham high school in Massachusetts, where she herself studied.
One of the students asked Suni how microgravity is experienced in space, and she described it as feeling like swimming.
"I've been up here for so long that I've been trying to remember what it's like to walk. I haven't walked. I haven't sat down. I haven't laid down. You don't have to. You can just close your eyes and float where you are right now," Williams explained, as reported by CBS News.
Suni acknowledged that they did not plan to stay in the station for so long and finding out that they would not return soon "was a bit shocking, actually", Williams explained to the students. "We knew it would probably be a month or so, to be honest. But the extended stay was a bit different," she assured.
Williams admitted that she is having fun and described how she stays in touch with her family. "I think I talk to my mother practically every day. I just call her to see how she's doing. So it's a bit of a different relationship than we had planned, but we're managing," she recounted.
NASA has established a plan with SpaceX, by Elon Musk, to try to bring them back in March. Although Donald Trump has asked Musk to try to make the crew's return as soon as possible.