The NASA astronauts who recently returned from their unexpected nine-month stay on the International Space Station said they would go on the mission again “in a heartbeat.”
During a press briefing on Monday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore opened up about the “unique mission” in their first news conference since returning to Earth.
Their trip to space was supposed to last only eight days, but instead turned into a nine-month stay because of technical problems with the Boeing Starliner capsule.
The duo said that despite the foul-up, they would fly in the Starliner again if the opportunity arose.
“We’re going to make it work,” Wilmore said, stressing that NASA and Boeing are committed to rectifying the problems.
As for Williams, she noted that the capsule is completely capable and that she would be honored to fly in it again.
In June, the pair was on a test flight when they encountered technical issues during the docking process. NASA decided that the capsule would return to Earth empty while it worked on a plan to bring the astronauts home in a SpaceX capsule. But issues with that capsule emerged and delayed their flight home even more.
Williams and Wilmore simply just “pivoted” their plans as they are trained to do.
The pair was pressed on who they believed was responsible for the bungled flight. Wilmore suggested that it wasn’t productive to point the finger but that he would start by holding himself accountable.
“I’ll start and point the finger and I’ll blame me. I could have asked some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide,” he told reporters. “All the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this.”
He also acknowledged that the space industry is a “tough business” and that “human space flight is hard,” and said everyone needs to have trust and faith in the process.
Back on Earth, the pair became the center of a political firestorm. President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk promised to speed up the astronauts’ return and blamed the Biden administration for keeping them up there too long. The astronauts maintained that politics doesn’t make it up to space. Trump later offered to cover their overtime costs out of his own pocket.
While the NASA test pilots quickly became known as the astronauts “stuck in space” and their story attracted global attention, they said they didn’t see their situation as being stuck or stranded.
The test pilots were largely unknown to the world prior to their problem-plagued flight. Williams, 59, and Wilmore, 62, came to NASA through the Navy.
Wilmore acknowledged how difficult it was to be away from loved ones for so long but said their families have understood the complexities of their unique occupation. He leaned on his faith and virtually attended church while in space.
Neither astronaut realized the extent to which the world was following their extended stay. They said that they were honored to bring the world together in a positive way, and that they’re humbled that their mission highlighted the importance of human space exploration.
