Two NASA astronauts stranded in space after a fiasco involving a Boeing spacecraft have held their first press conference.
‘This is not easy,’ said Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore, who has been stuck aboard the International Space Station (ISS) alongside his crewmate, Sunita Williams, since Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft brought them there on June 6.
Their extended stay has proven challenging for their families back on Earth as well. Wilmore and his wife have two daughters, one who is a senior in high school and another who is in college.
Wilmore said that the delayed return mission will cause him to miss out on most of his youngest daughter’s senior year, and that he didn’t get to spend the summer with his eldest before she went back to college.
But he hopes his absence will make them stronger. ‘They’re gonna learn from this, and they’re gonna grow from this,’ he said.
Sunita Williams (L) and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore answered questions live from the International Space Station Friday, where they have been stranded for over three months
Sunita left her husband and two dogs back at home when Starliner lifted off over three months ago.
She said she misses taking her dogs out for a walk in the morning and hearing sounds of the day starting on Earth, like birds chirping.
But being able to watch her home planet go by out of the ISS window ‘takes you to a different place, it’s very peaceful up here,’ she said.
Starliner launched on June 5 with the intention of docking at the ISS for about a week before returning Wilmore and Williams safely to Earth.
But the mission was already off to a rocky start. In the weeks before, the launch was delayed several times due to technical issues with the spacecraft.
Even on the day of liftoff, Starliner experienced minor helium leaks that engineers determined were not severe enough to delay the launch again.
It was all downhill from there. By the time Starliner reached the ISS, it had sprung more helium leaks and five of its 18 thrusters failed.
Ultimately, NASA came to the decision that it would be too risky for Williams and Wilmore to return to Earth on Starliner. Instead, they await SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, which will pick them up at the ISS and bring them home no earlier than February 2025.
A full timeline of Boeing’s Starliner program, from the singing of their massive contact to the incident that left two astronauts stranded aboard the ISS.
Boeing’s Starliner returned to Earth uncrewed on September 7.
Wilmore acknowledged the series of mishaps, saying that there have been ‘some trying times’ since the start of their mission, and it was difficult to see Starliner return home without them.
And in regard to NASA’s decision not to have Williams and Wilmore fly back to Earth with their spacecraft, Wilmore said ‘we found things we could not get comfortable with.’
He said he believes they could have got to the point where they could have returned on Starliner, but ‘we simply ran out of time’.
Williams said that because she and Wilmore used to work in the Navy, they’re familiar with last-minute logistical changes like this.
‘We’re not surprised when deployments get changed,’ she said, adding that their families understand.
‘It’s risky and that’s how it goes in the business,’ she says.
When a journalist asked the astronauts if they felt ‘let down’ by NASA and Boeing, Wilmore responded, ‘absolutely not.’
Pointing to Williams’ t-shirt with the NASA logo on it, he said, ‘that represents something that we stand for as an agency – we go beyond, we do things that are out of the ordinary’.
‘This is not easy,’ he added.
He explained that 90 percent of their astronaut training is preparing for ‘the unexpected’.
But we wouldn’t expect the astronauts to say anything critical about NASA, their employer, and the Boeing Starliner capsule that took them to the ISS.
What’s more, it’s well known that long-duration space missions can take a toll on an astronaut’s mental and emotional wellbeing.
In simulated space missions, some experience the ‘third quarter phenomenon’: a dip in motivation that comes from realizing there’s as long left in their situation as they have already lived through.
But if Williams and Wilmore are beginning to feel worn down by their extended stay on the ISS, they didn’t show it. Their demeanor remained upbeat and cheerful for the duration of the press conference.
‘We are tasked and we learn and we train to handle all types of different situations,’ Wilmore said, adding that it is not something he learned just with NASA, but throughout his entire career.
‘You have to go with what the good Lord gives you, whatever that is.’
