ASTRONAUTS left on the ISS for 286 days due to a fault with Boeing’s spacecraft have spoken out for the first time about their whirlwind trip.
Butch Wilmore, 62, and Suni Williams, 59, finally arrived back to Earth on March 18 travelling back in one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX capsules instead of Boeing’s Starliner they originally blasted out on.
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The pair were asked who was to blame for the botched mission, which was only supposed to last eight days.
Butch said there is equal blame to share – including himself.
However, they hit back at suggestions Boeing “failed” them.
“There are many questions that as the commander of CFT (Crew Flight Test), I didn’t ask, so I’m culpable, I’ll admit that to the nation,” he told America’s Newsroom on Fox News, their first media interview since returning.
“There are things that I did not ask that I should have asked. I didn’t know at the time I needed to ask them.
“But in hindsight, the signals, some of the signals were there.
“Is Boeing to blame? Are they culpable? Sure. Is NASA to blame? Sure.
“Everybody has a piece in this because it did not come off.
“There were some shortcomings in tests, shortcomings in preparation that we did not foresee.”
The pair also spoke about suggestions they were “stuck” or “abandoned” in space.
“Okay, in certain respects, we were stuck,” Butch continued.
“In certain respects, maybe we were stranded.
“But based on how they were couching this, that we were left and forgotten and all that, we were nowhere near any of that at all.
“So stuck? Okay. We didn’t get to come home the way we planned.
“So in one definition, we’re stuck.
“But in the big scheme of things, we weren’t stuck. We were planned, trained.”
Despite the issues, the duo said they would go back into space again.
Timeline of their extended stay on the ISS
- 5 June 2024: Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore launch to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft for what was intended to be an eight-day test mission.
- June 2024: Starliner successfully docks at the ISS after experiencing helium leaks and a thruster issue. The mission is extended due to the technical issues.
- August 2024: NASA announces that Williams and Wilmore will return to Earth on a SpaceX capsule instead of the Starliner due to ongoing technical concerns with the Boeing spacecraft. Their mission is indefinitely extended.
- September 2024: The uncrewed Starliner capsule returns to Earth.
- December 2024: NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov arrive at the ISS on SpaceX Dragon Freedom (Crew-9) as part of the rescue mission.
- November 2024: Thanksgiving is celebrated on board the ISS.
- 7 March 2025: Sunita Williams hands over command of the ISS to Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin in preparation for her return to Earth.
- 18 March 2025 (around 5am GMT): Williams, Wilmore, Hague, and Gorbunov undock from the ISS in the SpaceX Dragon capsule.
- 19 March 2025 (around 10pmGMT): The SpaceX Dragon capsule splashes down safely off the coast of Florida, near Tallahassee, marking the end of Williams and Wilmore’s 286-day mission.
- Post-return (starting 19 March 2025): The astronauts begin a 45-day rehabilitation programme to help them readjust to Earth’s gravity.
But they admitted there were tough times, such as when Butch had to miss his daughter’s graduation.
“Were there down times? Absolutely,” he explained.
“Were there times when I shed a tear talking to my wife and my daughters? Absolutely.
“But we look at these as opportunities to grow.”
They also expressed gratitude to President Donald Trump and Musk for their involvement in bringing them home safely.
“I’m just glad that they’re involved and they take notice,” Suni said.
“Our situation, I think I mentioned before, maybe wasn’t the perfect situation, but allowed a lot of people, including the President and Elon, to look at what’s going on on the International Space Station, take it very seriously and understand that our involvement as a country, as a space-faring nation, is really important throughout the world.”
What is the ISS?
Here’s what you need to know about the International Space Station…
- The International Space Station, often abbreviated to ISS, is a large space craft that orbits Earth and houses astronauts who go up there to complete scientific missions
- Many countries worked together to build it and they work together to use it
- It is made up of many pieces, which astronauts had to send up individually on rockets and put together from 1998 to 2000
- Ever since the year 2000, people have lived on the ISS
- Nasa uses the station to learn about living and working in space
- It is approximately 250 miles above Earth and orbits around the planet just like a satellite
- Living inside the ISS is said to be like living inside a big house with five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a gym, lots of science labs and a big bay window for viewing Earth
