Starliner astronauts have no regrets and agree with NASA’s decision to extend their mission

The two Starliner astronauts said Friday they do not regret NASA’s decision to extend their mission and return their spacecraft to Earth without them. They said they have started a new chapter in astronaut history and are enjoying the transition to becoming full-time space station astronauts.

Starliner Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams, both former Navy test pilots and veterans of previous stays aboard the International Space Station, spoke to reporters from orbit on Friday, the 100th day of a mission that was originally scheduled to last just over a week.

“There’s one thing I try not to worry about, things I can’t control,” said Wilmore, floating next to Williams in the station’s Destiny lab module. “I’m not going to worry about it. It doesn’t do me any good at all.”

“So my transition (psychologically) may not have been instantaneous, but it was pretty close. If I can’t influence it, if there’s nothing we can do, then there’s nothing we can do. So we march on and execute the plan of the day.”

Williams agreed, saying, “That’s what we do. We’re professionals.”

“I have to say, though, in the back of my mind, there are people on the ground who have plans, right? My family, for example, wanted to spend some time with my mom, and I think I was more worried about that, the things we had all discussed for this fall and winter,” Williams said.

“But you know what? Everyone is on board and supporting us while we’re up here. I think that concern quickly went away. We’re here and we’re going to be the best we can be for our (space station) crew members up here.”

Wilmore and Williams were Start to the station on 5 Juneand launched the first manned test flight of the Starliner.

At the rendezvous with the laboratory the next day, five reaction control system thrusters were not functioning properly and four helium leaks were detected in the propulsion pressure system, in addition to a small leak discovered before launch.

NASA and Boeing engineers and managers spent the next three months analyzing the problems to determine whether the Starliner could return Wilmore and Williams safely to Earth. Boeing argued that test data showed it could, but NASA managers were unconvinced.

In the end, the agency’s officials decided to keep the two astronauts on board the space station for a longer stay and bring down the Starlinerwithout its crew, on September 7. The spacecraft’s reentry and landing went smoothly, confirming Boeing’s confidence in the spacecraft.

Wilmore and Williams both said the entire station crew woke up early to watch the Starliner return to Earth, and Wilmore said he was thrilled about the successful landing. But he did not question NASA’s decision.

“It was wonderful that it came back and the fact that we weren’t there didn’t even cross my mind,” Wilmore said. “It was never like, oh, we shouldn’t… no, not at all. The decision was made (and) we’re going on with the plan for the day.”

However, he said if NASA had had more time to investigate the helium leaks and engine problems, he and Williams might have been able to return aboard the Starliner as originally planned.

“I think the data could have taken us there,” he said. “I think we could have gotten to the point where we could have returned with the Starliner.”

But because other spacecraft and crews were flying to and from the space station that month, “we just didn’t have enough time to get to the end of the schedule where we could say we were going to come back with it. I think we would have done it, but we just ran out of time.”

Wilmore and Williams are not the first astronauts to face a longer mission.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio faced a similar dilemma in 2022, when his six-month stay aboard the station was extended to over a full year due to problems with the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that carried him into orbit.

“I think going from six months to 12 months is tough, but not as tough as going from eight days to eight months,” Rubio said in an interview with CBS News.

“I’m sure there’s a small part of you that’s disappointed,” he said. “It’s OK to admit that. But you can’t be moping all the time, can you? … You just have to keep recommitting yourself to the mission.”

And that’s exactly what Wilmore and Williams said they did.

The Starliner astronauts have joined the station’s full-time crew and will now return home in late February by embarking on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft with Crew 9 commander Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov. The launch of the Crew 9 flight is scheduled for September 25th.

The Crew Dragon normally launches with four spaceflighters on board, but NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were pulled from the upcoming flight to give Wilmore and Williams spots for the return. When they return to Earth with Hague and Gorbunov in late February, the Starliner astronauts will have spent 262 days off the planet.

“We’re both in the Navy and we’ve both been deployed,” Williams said. “We’re not surprised when missions change. Our families are used to it, too. So it’s not a big surprise.”

In this case, NASA “made the right decisions, and we are here. That’s just the way this business works. It’s risky, and that’s the way this business works.”

On a positive note, she and Wilmore are “excited to fly in two different spacecraft,” she added.

“We’re testers, that’s our job. We look at different aircraft, spacecraft, etc. … We wanted to get Starliner to completion and then land it back home. But you have to turn the page and look for the next opportunity. We’ll come back with some evaluations of both spacecraft, and I think we’re pretty lucky with that.”

And in the meantime, it’s not all work and no play. Williams, who spent 322 days aboard the space station on two previous visits, said life aboard the orbiting laboratory is “my happy place.”

“It’s very peaceful up here,” she said. “There’s often a lot of work going on here, but you also have the opportunity to go inward a little and change your perspective a little bit on the way we do things on Earth.”

“It’s really hard for me to imagine people on Earth not getting along. It’s the only planet we have and we should all be really happy that we’re there together because that’s it. That’s our place. … It just changes the perspective.”

And then there’s the sports. Wilmore, who grew up in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, near Nashville, is an avid Southeastern Conference football fan. He told an ESPN reporter, “If you need a guest picker for ‘College Game Day,’ give me a call. Also, I’ve been asked several times: Yes, I have the SEC Network.”