March 31, 2025:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s celebrity astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said Monday (March 31, 2025) that they hold themselves partly responsible for what went wrong on their space sprint-turned-marathon and would fly on Boeing’s Starliner again.
SpaceX recently ferried the duo home after more than nine months at the International Space Station, filling in for Boeing that returned to Earth without them last year.
In their first news conference since coming home, the pair said they were taken aback by all the interest and insisted they were only doing their job and putting the mission ahead of themselves and even their families.
Wilmore didn’t shy from accepting some of the blame for Boeing’s bungled test flight.
“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.”
Both astronauts said they would strap into Starliner again. “Because we’re going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. We’re going to fix them. We’re going to make it work,” Wilmore said, adding he’d go back up “in a heartbeat.”
Williams noted that Starliner has “a lot of capability” and she wants to see it succeed. “We’re all in,” she said.
The two will meet with Boeing leadership on Wednesday to provide a rundown on the flight and its problems.
“It’s not for pointing fingers,” Wilmore said. “It’s just to make the path clearer going forward.”
The longtime astronauts and retired Navy captains ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days more than planned when they blasted off on Boeing’s first astronaut flight on June 5. The test pilots had to intervene in order for the Starliner capsule to reach the space station, as thrusters failed and helium leaked.
Their space station stay kept getting extended as engineers debated how to proceed. NASA finally judged Starliner too dangerous to bring Wilmore and Williams back and transferred them to SpaceX. But the launch of their replacements got stalled, stretching their mission beyond nine months.
President Donald Trump urged SpaceX’s Elon Musk to hurry things up, adding politics to the stuck astronauts’ ordeal. The dragged-out drama finally ended two weeks ago with a flawless splashdown by SpaceX off the Florida Panhandle.
“It’s great being back home after being up there,” Williams told The Associated Press in an interview. She waited until she was steadier on her feet before reuniting with her two Labrador retrievers the day after splashdown. “Pure joy.”
Wilmore already has a to-do list. His wife wants to replace all the shrubs in their yard before summer. “So I’ve got to get my body ready to dig holes,” he told the AP.
NASA said engineers still do not understand why Starliner’s thrusters malfunctioned; more tests are planned through the summer. If engineers can figure out the thruster and leak issues, “Starliner is ready to go,” Wilmore said.
The space agency may require another test flight — with cargo — before allowing astronauts to climb aboard. That redo could come by year’s end.
Despite Starliner’s rocky road, NASA officials said they stand behind the decision made years ago to have two competing U.S. companies providing taxi service to and from the space station. But time is running out: The space station is set to be abandoned in five years and replaced in orbit by privately operated labs.
March 18, 2025:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s two stuck astronauts headed back to Earth with SpaceX on Tuesday (March 18, 2025) to close out a dramatic marathon mission that began with a bungled Boeing test flight more than nine months ago.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams bid farewell to the International Space Station — their home since last spring — departing aboard a SpaceX capsule alongside two other astronauts. The capsule undocked shortly after 1 a.m. Eastern and aimed for a splashdown off the Florida coast around 6 p.m. Eastern, weather permitting.
The two expected to be gone just a week or so after launching on Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. So many problems cropped up on the way to the space station that NASA eventually sent Starliner back empty and transferred the test pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February. Then SpaceX capsule issues added another month’s delay.
Sunday’s arrival of their relief crew meant Wilmore and Williams could finally leave. NASA cut them loose a little early, given the iffy weather forecast later this week. They checked out with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov, who arrived in their own SpaceX capsule last fall with two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo.
“We’ll miss you, but have a great journey home,” NASA’s Anne McClain called out from the space station as the capsule pulled away 260 miles (418 kilometers) above the Pacific.
Their plight captured the world’s attention, giving new meaning to the phrase “stuck at work.” While other astronauts had logged longer spaceflights over the decades, none had to deal with so much uncertainty or see the length of their mission expand by so much.
Wilmore and Williams quickly transitioned from guests to full-fledged station crew members, conducting experiments, fixing equipment and even spacewalking together. With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, Williams set a record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts.
Both had lived on the orbiting lab before and knew the ropes, and brushed up on their station training before rocketing away. Williams became the station’s commander three months into their stay and held the post until earlier this month.
Their mission took an unexpected twist in late January when President Donald Trump asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to accelerate the astronauts’ return and blamed the delay on the Biden administration. The replacement crew’s brand new SpaceX capsule still wasn’t ready to fly, so SpaceX subbed it with a used one, hurrying things along by at least a few weeks.
Even in the middle of the political storm, Wilmore and Williams continued to maintain an even keel at public appearances from orbit, casting no blame and insisting they supported NASA’s decisions from the start.
NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing after the shuttle program ended, in order to have two competing U.S. companies for transporting astronauts to and from the space station until it’s abandoned in 2030 and steered to a fiery reentry. By then, it will have been up there more than three decades; the plan is to replace it with privately run stations so NASA can focus on moon and Mars expeditions.
Both retired Navy captains, Wilmore and Williams stressed they didn’t mind spending more time in space — a prolonged deployment reminiscent of their military days. But they acknowledged it was tough on their families.
Wilmore, 62, missed most of his younger daughter’s senior year of high school; his older daughter is in college. Williams, 59, had to settle for internet calls from space to her mother. They’ll have to wait until they’re off the SpaceX recovery ship and flown to Houston before the long-awaited reunion with their loved ones.
March 16, 2025:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A SpaceX capsule has arrived at the International Space Station, delivering the replacements for NASA’s two stuck astronauts. The new crew pulled up Sunday (March 16, 2025), just 29 hours after blasting off. The four newcomers will spend the next few days learning the station’s ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Then it will be time for those two to end their nine-month stay and head home. They expected to be gone just a week when they launched on Boeing’s first astronaut flight last June. The Starliner capsule had so many problems that NASA insisted it come back empty. Wilmore and Williams will come back via SpaceX.
March 4, 2025:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s two stuck astronauts are just a few weeks away from finally returning to Earth after nine months in space.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have to wait until their replacements arrive at the International Space Station next week before they can check out later this month.
They’ll be joined on their SpaceX ride home by two astronauts who launched by themselves in September 2024 alongside two empty seats.
During a news conference Tuesday (March 4, 2025), Wilmore said that while politics is part of life, it did not play into his and Williams’ return, moved up a couple weeks thanks to a change in SpaceX capsules. President Donald Trump and SpaceX’s Elon Musk said at the end of January 2025 that they wanted to accelerate the astronauts’ return, blaming the previous administration.
But Williams, in response to a question, did take issue with Musk’s recent call to dump the space station in two years, rather than waiting until NASA’s projected deorbit in 2031. She noted all the scientific research being performed at the orbiting lab.
“This place is ticking. It’s just really amazing, so I would say we’re actually in our prime right now,” said Williams, a three-time space station resident. “I would think that right now is probably not the right time to say quit, call it quits.”
Williams said she can’t wait to be reunited with her Labrador retrievers. The hardest part about the unexpected extended stay, she added, was the wait by their families back home.
“It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us,” she said. “We’re here. We have a mission. We’re just just doing what we do every day, and every day is interesting because we’re up in space and it’s a lot of fun.”
Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week or so when they launched last June aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, making its crew debut after years of delay. The Starliner had so many problems getting to the space station that NASA ruled it too dangerous to carry anyone and it flew back empty.
Their homecoming was further delayed by extra completion time needed for the brand new SpaceX capsule that was supposed to deliver their replacements.
Last month, NASA announced the next crew would launch in a used capsule instead, pushing up liftoff to March 12. The two crews will spend about a week together aboard the space station before Wilmore and Williams depart with NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov.
Wilmore and Williams — retired Navy captains and repeat space fliers — have insisted over the months that they are healthy and committed to the mission as long as it takes. They took a spacewalk together in January.
They will wear generic SpaceX flight suits for the ride back, not the usual custom-made outfits bearing their names because their trip home in a Dragon capsule was unplanned. That’s fine with them, although Wilmore hinted he might use a pen to write his name on his suit.
“We’re just Butch and Suni,” Williams said. “Everybody knows who we are by now.”
January 30, 2025:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s two stuck astronauts took their first spacewalk together Thursday (Jan. 30, 2025), exiting the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in.
Commander Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore floated out to remove a broken antenna and wipe the station’s exterior for evidence of any microbes that might still be alive after launching from Earth and escaping through vents.
They had trouble unbolting the balky antenna, which had thwarted previous spacewalkers. “It’s not budging,” Wilmore reported as the job dragged on 260 miles (420 kilometers) up.
Mission Control canceled all other chores so the two could focus on the antenna, NASA’s top priority.
The pair expected to stay just a week when they arrived at the space station last June. But their brand new ride, Boeing’s Starliner capsule, encountered so much trouble that NASA decided to return it empty.
That left the two test pilots, both retired Navy captains, in orbit until SpaceX can bring them home. That won’t happen until late March or early April, extending their mission to 10 months because of a SpaceX delay in launching their replacements.
Williams performed a spacewalk two weeks ago with another NASA astronaut. It marked Wilmore’s first time outside this trip. Both racked up spacewalks during previous space station stays.
DECEMBER 18, 2024:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s two stuck astronauts just got their space mission extended again. That means they won’t be back until spring, 10 months after rocketing into orbit on Boeing’s Starliner capsule. NASA said Tuesday (Dec. 17, 2024) that a fresh crew needs to launch from Florida before Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams can return from the International Space Station. This new crew was supposed to launch in February, but SpaceX needs more time to prepare the brand new capsule for flight. That launch is now scheduled for no earlier than late March.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2024:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June welcomed their new ride home with Sunday’s arrival of a SpaceX capsule.
SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a downsized crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return next year. The Dragon capsule docked in darkness as the two craft soared 265 miles (426 kilometers) above Botswana.
NASA switched Wilmore and Williams to SpaceX following concerns over the safety of their Boeing Starliner capsule. It was the first Starliner test flight with a crew, and NASA decided the thruster failures and helium leaks that cropped up after liftoff were too serious and poorly understood to risk the test pilots’ return. So Starliner returned to Earth empty earlier this month.
The Dragon carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov will remain at the space station until February, turning what should have been a weeklong trip for Wilmore and Williams into a mission lasting more than eight months.
Two NASA astronauts were pulled from the mission to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return leg.
“I just want to say welcome to our new compadres,” Williams, the space station commander, said once Hague and Gorbunov floated inside and were embraced by the nine astronauts awaiting them.
Hague said it was a smooth flight up. “Coming through the hatch and seeing all the smiles, and as much as I’ve laughed and cried in the last 10 minutes, I know it’s going to be an amazing expedition,” he said.
NASA likes to replace its station crews every six months or so. SpaceX has provided the taxi service since the company’s first astronaut flight in 2020. NASA also hired Boeing for ferry flights after the space shuttles were retired, but flawed software and other Starliner issues led to years of delays and more than $1 billion in repairs.
Starliner inspections are underway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, with post-flight reviews of data set to begin this week.
“We’re a long way from saying, ‘Hey, we’re writing off Boeing,’” NASA’s associate administrator Jim Free said at a pre-launch briefing.
The arrival of two fresh astronauts means the four who have been up there since March can now return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule in just over a week, bringing the station’s crew size back down to the normal seven. Their stay was extended a month because of the Starliner turmoil.
Although Saturday’s liftoff went well, SpaceX said the rocket’s spent upper stage ended up outside its targeted impact zone in the Pacific because of a bad engine firing. The company has halted all Falcon launches until it figures out what went wrong.was extended a month because of the Starliner turmoil.
SEPTEMBER 7, 2024:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Boeing’s first astronaut mission is finally over. The company’s empty Starliner capsule landed in the New Mexico desert late Friday night (Sept. 6, 2024), with its two test pilots left behind at the International Space Station. NASA judged their return too risky and booked SpaceX to bring them home. That won’t happen until next year, more than eight months after they launched on Starliner. They were supposed to be away for just eight days, but thruster trouble and helium leaks marred their trip to the space station back in June. Starliner landed on autopilot six hours after departing the orbiting lab.
AUGUST 26, 2024:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has decided it’s too risky to bring two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s troubled new capsule. They’ll have to wait until February 2025 for a ride home with SpaceX. What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months. Their trip to the International Space Station in June was marred by a cascade of thruster failures and helium leaks, The astronauts ended up in a holding pattern as engineers conducted tests and debated what to do about the trip back. The decision finally came down from NASA officials on Saturday (Aug. 24, 2024).
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