NASA Astronauts Speak Out In First Interview After 9 Months In Space

Science

In their first interview since returning to Earth after an unexpected nine-month stay in space, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams say they are not looking to point fingers, don’t consider their mission a failure and that they’d go back again if given the chance.

“Space flight is hard. It’s really hard,” Williams told Fox News when asked about Boeing’s Starliner malfunctioning and being unable to safely return them from the International Space Station as originally planned in June.

“I wouldn’t characterize as they failed us. I would characterize it as, there was a huge team working together diligently to try to weigh all the risks of putting people in a spacecraft for the very first time with brand-new systems,” she said.

Wilmore also disputed whether they were truly “stranded,” as the media and President Donald Trump said, saying: “In the big scheme of things, we weren’t stuck.”

He added, “OK, in certain respects, we were stuck. In certain respects, maybe we were stranded. But based on how they were couching this, that we were left, forgotten, and all that, we were nowhere near any of that, at all.”

He also said that he believes everyone shares a piece of the blame for what went wrong, including himself as the commander of Boeing’s Crew Flight Test mission.

“Is Boeing to blame and culpable? Sure. Is NASA to blame? Are they culpable? Sure. Everybody has a piece in it,” he said. “There are some things I should have asked that I didn’t know I needed to ask.”

Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait on the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 13. — Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait on the International Space Station’s Harmony module and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 13.

Both said they were never upset or angry about their time away, with Wilmore calling their unexpected time from family “part of the job” and also a “common occurrence” among people who have a position in the military, police, or other forms of public service.

Their families had it harder than they did, though, Williams said.

They “haven’t planned and made this their life passion to fly in space. This is not what they love and signed up for. They have to watch us launch into space and be there and not be there for activities that we may have planned on,” she said.

“I kept telling my family, I’m not back until I’m back,” Wilmore said. “This is the nature of the business we do. We’ve had changes in the past. We may have changes now. But it was certainly a great feeling when you have a date and you’re marching towards a date.”

NASA astronaut Suni Williams is helped out of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after she and fellow NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, landed off Florida's coast on March 18. — NASA astronaut Suni Williams is helped out of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after she and fellow NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, landed off Florida’s coast on March 18.

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The pair was also asked what they’d say to Trump and Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX helped bring them back after Trump said the Biden administration had “virtually abandoned” them.

“I respect you. I trust you. You’ve given me no reason not to trust you, either one of them,” Wilmore said. “I can’t say what they say, I haven’t lived that. But I have no reason not to believe anything they say because they’ve earned my trust, and for that I’m grateful.”

Both also stated they would go back to space if given the opportunity, though they would prioritize others who haven’t yet had the experience first.